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H&M Launches First Global Clothing Collection Recycling Program

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  • 525252
    Senior Member
    • Dec 2010
    • 246

    H&M Launches First Global Clothing Collection Recycling Program

    H&M Launches First Global Clothing Collection Recycling Program
    By Raz Godelnik | December 11th, 2012



    Last week, H&M announced it will launch a clothing collecting initiative worldwide. Starting in February 2013, customers at H&M, the world’s second biggest fashion chain after Spanish group Inditex, will be able to hand in used garments from any brand in H&M stores in all 48 markets. The items will then be handled by H&M’s partner, I:Collect, a global recycling company.

    H&M is not the first one to come up with such an initiative – last April M&S launched its shwopping program, which has resulted, according to the company, in 2.2 million used and unwanted pieces of clothing being brought to M&S and Oxfam stores. Still, H&M does have one record to be proud of – it will become the first fashion company to launch a clothing collecting initiative worldwide (shwopping is available currently only in the UK).

    This is the latest H&M effort to reduce the environmental impact of clothes throughout their lifecycle. The company explains that through this global initiative, H&M’s customers can save natural resources and contribute to reduced environmental impact by avoiding textile waste. To incentivize consumers to take part in the new program, in exchange they will receive a discount of 15 percent on one item of their choice.

    Since it looks like clothing collection programs are becoming popular with fashion retailers, this might be the right time to ask how sustainable these programs actually are, especially if they also encourage consumers, directly or indirectly, to buy new items. Are these sorts of programs really advancing fashion retailers like H&M towards a more sustainable fashion future?

    First, let’s look at this program from a carbon footprint perspective. According to the BSR report, Apparel Industry Life Cycle Carbon Mapping, the single most important factor determining a garment’s life cycle GHG emissions is the use phase, with laundering making the largest contribution to a garment’s life cycle GHG footprint.

    What about the end life of garments? “LCAs demonstrate that GHG emissions related to garment disposal are very small, and generally result from small amounts of methane created during decomposition of natural fibers. Certain disposal options reduce GHG emissions, however. Incineration of natural fibers in a waste-to-energy plant may displace the use of fossil fuels, for example, while the recycling of used garments into new textiles reduces the need for new raw materials,” the report adds.

    Nevertheless, the potential to reduce the carbon footprint in the manufacturing phase by using recycled materials is substantial – a research conducted by SATCOL and others to “determine whether the recycling of clothes, shoes and textiles actually results in a net energy benefit” found that reusing polyester and cotton reduces the energy use in both cases by more than 97 percent compared to using virgin materials.

    The next question is whether efficiency can outweigh scale – or in other words, what happens if consumers feel good about making a positive impact when they recycle clothes and decide to buy more clothes, especially if they get a discount coupon that makes this kind of purchase even more attractive?

    Retailers can minimize this problem by not encouraging consumers to buy new items to replace the ones they recycle either directly (asking them not to do so) or indirectly (not providing coupons like H&M is doing now). Yet, most of the retailers aren’t Patagonia, and do want their customers to buy more items.

    As H&M writes, its business concept is “to offer fashion and quality at the best price. Quality includes ensuring that products are manufactured in a way that is environmentally and socially sustainable.” The problem is, you can’t really be a fashion retailer and limit the discussion on sustainability to some parts of the value chain, just like you can’t really avoid discussing and taking responsibility for working conditions of your subcontractors’ employees or what chemicals they use and how they handle them.

    In fairness, H&M makes an effort to address its value chain holistically as can be seen from its other sustainability efforts, including its seven sustainability commitments and other achievements like being the number one user of organic cotton worldwide, pledging to zero discharge of hazardous chemicals, or saving 13 million gallons of water in denim production. Now, H&M is helping consumers get rid of a very bad habit – every year tons of textiles are thrown out with domestic waste and end up in landfill and according to the company’s report, as much as 95 percent of these clothes could be used again.

    Even so, getting rid of one problem can’t take away the need to take make a systematic change – after all, if H&M’s customers start buying more items, the environmental benefits of the collection program will decrease and decrease until eventually they might even vanish.

    The solution should be to start looking at ways to take a more systematic approach, including encouraging consumers to make smart purchases and finding ways to integrate sharing economy ideas into the business model – wouldn’t it make more sense to arrange clothing swaps instead of just recycling them? Environmentally, of course it does, but how do you make money from it? Once H&M figures that out, it will truly be on the path to selling sustainable fashion.
  • Faust
    kitsch killer
    • Sep 2006
    • 37852

    #2
    More bullshit. Fucking amazing. The best way to promote sustainability is to buy less.
    Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months - Oscar Wilde

    StyleZeitgeist Magazine

    Comment

    • LEB
      Member
      • May 2012
      • 43

      #3
      Again.. capitalism 2.0 - now compatible with 'critical consumers'. Customers can easily justify buying tons of new crap because it is supposedly eco friendly recycling.

      Amazing marketing strategy.
      Hier könnte Ihre Werbung stehen!

      Comment

      • theetruscan
        Senior Member
        • Jan 2008
        • 2270

        #4
        Originally posted by Faust View Post
        More bullshit. Fucking amazing. The best way to promote sustainability is to buy less.
        I dunno. That article seems to imply that the best way to promote sustainability is to wash less. Apparently I'm ahead of the curve.
        Hobo: We all dress up. We all put on our armour before we walk out the door, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’re trying to be someone else.

        Comment

        • Dane
          HAMMERTIME
          • Feb 2011
          • 3252

          #5


          "...bags of garments that appear to have never been worn. And to make sure that they never would be worn or sold, someone had slashed most of them with box cutters or razors, a familiar sight outside H & M’s back door."

          I realize that one could argue that resellers could take advantage of discarded stock and "devalue" the brand name, but there are resources to remove labels and even graphics/screening on garments.

          The concept of these companies who produce mass quantities of disposable clothing being "eco conscious" is an oxymoron, and frankly insulting to the consumer.
          i traded my LUC jeans + Julius belt + Neil Barrett jeans for a blamain biker jeans

          Comment

          • severin
            Senior Member
            • Feb 2011
            • 111

            #6
            i think we know who is behind this........ :




            but in all honesty, i'm not feeing as cynical about it as maybe i could be. yes, ideally h&m should change it's entire approach / function / purpose if they genuinely want to have a true environmental impact. but that's just not based in reality. not yet anyway. and at least this is something.....
            Last edited by severin; 12-12-2012, 01:41 PM. Reason: add more to discussion than just ab fab recognition......
            take me up to the top of the city

            Comment

            • Would
              Junior Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 9

              #7
              Originally posted by Faust View Post
              The best way to promote sustainability is to buy less.
              It's true. I do low level inventory control for a fast fashion company and the amount of waste is astonishing. The company loves to talk about its "progressive" manufacturing practices, which really just translates into occasionally making scrunchies out of left over t-shirt material. Never mind the horribly inefficient (not to mention ancient) energy guzzling machinery we're using, or atmospherically problematic dyeing processes.

              Recycling is not a viable(profitable) solution. Personally, I don't see how it ever could be. No matter how streamlined the process, or how narrow the margins are, it's just never going to be cheaper. The only way that would happen is through government intervention via tax breaks or other incentives.

              The only solution is for less consumption which is pretty much diametrically opposed to the goals of I don't know...everyone. I've heard arguments that the rise of a Chinese middle class will help combat certain practices that are environmentally and socially harmful. But I don't really buy that, there's always going to be someone willing to do the work.

              There's too much money to be made.
              Last edited by Would; 12-12-2012, 05:18 PM. Reason: Semantics

              Comment

              • crtk001
                Member
                • Nov 2010
                • 92

                #8
                Originally posted by Faust View Post
                More bullshit. Fucking amazing. The best way to promote sustainability is to buy less.

                Comment

                • 525252
                  Senior Member
                  • Dec 2010
                  • 246

                  #9
                  I was talking to a friend about this just then, but does anyone think this kind of gesture is important? I don't at all buy into this bullshit but I feel like simply telling people to buy less is impractical on both sides of the consumer and the corporation and it simply won't happen. However, H&M making a (mostly useless and selfish) acknowledgement/response to its global impact is a gesture which I think should get at least a few people thinking about the fact that the frivolous little fashion industry is not so harmless. Its not a particularly bad nor good thing. I just don't think shouting "BUY LESS" is very meaningful, effective nor practical (though buying less is ultimately the way to go)

                  Comment

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