H&M Closes the Loop in Fasion

With spring around the corner fashionistas may find themselves purging their closets of winter wear. But even if that cashmere sweater has seen better days or those ski pants have had their fair share of runs down the slopes, don’t throw them into the bin. Instead, take them along to an H&M store where they will gladly accept them regardless of how used they are. The clothing giant will assess the donations and those garments that are still in wearable condition will be resold, while items that are too worn will enter the fashion chain once again by being turned into clothing fibers. The initiative is part of H&M’s goal to “Close the Loop” in fashion.

With Earth Day kicking off this week, we sat down with Hanna Hallin, H&M’s sustainability manager for greater China, to find out more about the company’s eco initiatives.

H&M’s main goal when it comes to sustainability is “to provide fashion in a sustainable way,” Hallin says. “We make sure our customers can enter the store and feel secure that we have covered responsibility from the design of the garment to the choice of raw materials - in fact throughout the whole production process all the way from supplier to store.” The end goal for H&M is “to engage with customers to make sure they come back to us when they no longer want the [garments they buy from us].”

Hallin liaises with local organisations in greater China and Taiwan to put the company’s sustainability goals into practice. This includes looking for new opportunities to work with local organizations to initiate garment collecting initiatives.

H&M’s goals extend to the environment too, with organic cotton being used in many garments. That fact that organic cotton does not use chemical fertilizers, pesticides or GMO crops is important says Hallin, but the supply of organic cotton in the world is limited.That is why initiatives like H&M’s “Close the Loop” are so important and can hopefully put the fashion world on the path to sustainability. “We need to increase recycling of cotton by 2020 to the level where we can say all our cotton is sustainable,” Hallin says. With organic cotton, recycled cotton and Better Cotton (certified by the BCI) making up close to one third of H&M’s cotton use in 2015, going to 100 percent in just five years seems a lofty goal.

And it in’t just cotton that H&M are targeting. Over 90 million PET bottles have been used to make recycled polyester for use in their garments.

The Swedish clothing giant has been working on sustainability programs since the mid 90s and launched their “Conscious Collection”, clothes made with recycled material (including polyester, silk and even glass beads) five years ago. “Close the Loop” launched in 2014.

“It’s really exciting to see the process of turning what would otherwise be wasted material into new clothes and then seeing those clothes being worn all over again.”

It is also World Recycling Week this week. To raise awareness of the global movement, H&M partnered with singer, songwriter and artist M.I.A. who wrote the song “Rewear it.” “World Recycle Week is about embracing important environmental issues such as the landfills and highlighting a global movement,” says M.I.A.

By the April 24, H&M aims to collect 1,000 tonnes of unwanted or worn out garments from customers in its more than 3,600 stores worldwide.

Check out M.I.A.’s video above and read more about H&M’s sustainability initiatives here.

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