February 4, 2017
The fashion industry doesn’t have the best reputation as far as sustainability and ethics go, but companies such as H&M are taking strides to change this image.
The apparel company launched its worldwide Garment Collecting Initiative back in 2013 and has since collected over 40,000 tons of clothing. Customers can bring any unwanted garments and textiles, from any brand and in any condition, to any H&M store, all year round. The goal is to increase the amount of garments collected, every year, until they reach a total collected volume of 25,000 tons per year by 2020.
Now, H&M is looking to amp up its efforts with its new “Bring It” garment collecting campaign. The campaign kicked off with a new film directed by Crystal Moselle, which aims to raise awareness on the importance of garment recycling.
H&M wants to close the loop on fashion by giving customers an easy solution to hand in unwanted garments so they can be reused or recycled through H&M’s garment collecting initiative. By doing so, fewer garments go to landfill. The "Bring It" film tells the journey that unwanted garments go on after they have been collected in store and illustrates how the lifespan of a garment can be increased to keep it in the loop for as long as possible.
In 2014 H&M also introduced its first Close the Loop collection made with recycled textile fibers - an important step in closing the loop for fashion. A new exclusive online collection consisting of two Close the Loop products made entirely out of used denim will be released during week five.
Closing the loop is a central commitment of H&M’s work towards a sustainable fashion future. The aim is to create a closed loop for textiles, so that unwanted clothes can be reused and recycled to create fresh textile fibers for new products. In turn, this will help to save natural resources and ensure that zero garments go to landfill.
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