H&M Joins M&S By Collecting Recycled Clothing in its Stores Worldwide

Fashion retailers are embracing sustainability with ever-widening arms, becoming increasingly accountable for the byproducts their industry creates. With their latest moves, H&M and Marks & Spencer (M&S as it's better known) are leading the rack-pack.

Following in the footsteps of the UK-wide recycling push launched by M&S earlier this year, H&M is planning to launch the world’s first global clothing collective initiative, to be introduced in all of its 48 markets in February.

According to the fast-fashion retailer's press release, “Any pieces of clothing, from any brand and in any condition are accepted. In return, the customer will receive a voucher for each bag brought. The collected chinese fashion mens clothing are then handled by H&M’s partner, I:Collect, which provides the infrastructure in which consumer goods are repeatedly reprocessed and made available for new use."

“Our sustainability efforts are rooted in a dedication to social and environmental responsibility. We want to do good for the environment, which is why we are now offering our customers a convenient solution: to be able to leave their worn out or defective garments with H&M,” stated H&M CEO Karl-Johan Persson.

No value was stated for the voucher H&M is offering in return for donations to in-store collection boxes to be processed by I:CO, as its Swiss recycling partner is branded; its tagline is "Rethink. Recycle. Reward."

I:CO's partners to date have been Reno Shoes and Adler in Europe, so it's taking on a huge task by agreeing to process H&M-collected used clothing and shoe donations worldwide. I:CO's website explains that it works with a bigger, unnamed recycling partner: "I:CO’s partnership with one of the world’s largest, most experienced and innovative clothing and shoe recycling companies ensures that your collected items are professionally recycled and repurposed into much needed raw materials — aspiring to nothing less than Zero Waste."

Another section of the I:CO website (which has yet to be updated with news of its H&M partnership) elaborates,

Repurposed clothing and shoes is not only an economically but also an environmentally-friendly retail alternative. When items are no longer wearable, I:CO transforms unusable clothing into industrial products ranging from cleaning clothing suppliers wholesale, paper, insulation, carpet underlay, surface covering and textile fibers.

So more details to come, it seems, on how it all will work once H&M's global customer base starts carting their cast-offs to stores. It's just the latest sustainable move for H&M, which is seeking to be more efficient and sustainable in an industry where "Every year tonnes of textiles are thrown out with domestic waste and end up in landfill. As much as 95 percent of these clothes could be used again; re-worn, reused or recycled - depending on the state of the garment.

“Long-term, H&M wants to reduce the environmental impact of garments throughout the lifecycle and create a closed loop for textile fibres," the company's statement added, "which is why H&M has set up its Conscious Foundation: to support innovation on closing the loop on textiles and social projects along H&M’s value chain." It's also, of course, promoting its corporate values and educating customers, employees and partners.

H&M was the biggest user of organic cotton worldwide for the second consecutive year in 2011, part of the brand’s strategic goal to only use more sustainable cotton by 2020. Besides increased use of certified organic cotton, H&M is also boosting the use of called Better Cotton and is an active member of the Better Cotton Initiative, investing more than EUR 2 million in total (until 2013) in helping hundreds of thousands of cotton farmers grow more cotton with less water and fewer chemicals.

Competitor M&S started a ‘shwopping’ fashion revolution, asking shoppers to donate an old item when purchasing a new one at selected stores. M&S, in turn, forwards the donations to Oxfam's network of charity shops across the UK to help those less fortunate, with a certain amount getting recycled and reused for other products.

In-store collection bins are augmented by a Facebook app that lets users 'shwop' socially and register for a monthly prize draw. “It's time to open your mind, your heart, your arms and your wardrobe. Shwopping is a way of living and thinking, because we think that old clothes shouldn't just be thrown out, they should do some good,” explained Ab Fab actress and M&S brand ambassador Joanna Lumley at the initiative's launch back in April.

“We're leading a change in the way we all shop for china wholesale clothing, forever,” said M&S CEO Marc Bolland. “This is the right, responsible move for the UK's biggest clothing retailer and the ultimate goal is simple – to put a complete stop to clothes ending up in landfill. We want to get back one garment for every one we sell. For us that's 350 million a year. It is a big number, but with our customers' help, we will do it.”

M&S has already offered a Shwopping coat for sale, made entirely from recycled material from the initiative, and plans to install Shwop Drops (as it calls its clothes collection bins) in offices, free of charge, in exchange for an M&S voucher to the organizer. “For companies, it a great way to engage with employees and improve your sustainability credentials.”

M&S also hosted London’s first Sustainable Fashion Lab in April, a pop-up project to engender dialogue between designers and stylists about sustainability, highlighting the brand’s Plan A commitment to become "the world's most sustainable major retailer" by 2015. 

“We're doing this because it's what you want us to do. It's also the right thing to do. We're calling it Plan A because we believe it's now the only way to do business,” says M&S in its Plan A manifesto video, adding, “There is no Plan B.”