Used textile collection service
Project details
- Main leader : H&M
- Type of initiative :
- Périmètre : Monde, France
- Localisation : 16-18 rue du Quatre Septembre, 75002, Paris
- Date de début : février 2013
Economy circular topics
- Extending useful service life
- Recycling
- Eco-design
- Sustainable procurement
- Responsible consumption
- Functional service economy
- Industrial and regional ecology
Since 2013, all H&M stores worldwide have been providing an unprecedented used textile collection service on a permanent basis.
Customers are able to donate garments and other textiles, regardless of their brand or degree of wear. To express our gratitude to our customers and encourage them to continue sorting, we offer discount vouchers in exchange for their old textiles.
The collected garments are then managed by our partner, I.CO, which has the necessary infrastructures to give them a new lease of life. They are sorted according to multiple criteria, based on their material and condition, so that they can either be worn again, reused as rags, recycled or used to produce energy.
The garment collection scheme is first and foremost and environmental project with a short-term goal of avoiding wastage in the fashion sector and decreasing waste; the long-term goal is to find a solution to reuse or recycle all textile fibres, thereby "closing the textile loop".
Qualitative benefits
Social benefits
For every kilogram of garments collected in France, €0.02 is paid to UNICEF France. In the interest of total transparency, the results are available at the following website: http://www.hm.charitystar.com/en/home.
Furthermore, sorting and recycling the collected products helps to create jobs at our partner I:CO, some of which are work integration positions.
Lastly, revenue generated by our collection service benefits the H&M foundation, established in 2007, which runs charitable and innovation-focussed projects around the world. For more information: http://sustainability.hm.com/en/sustainability/about/hm-conscious/hm-conscious-foundation.html
Environmental benefits
According to the University of Copenhagen, collecting and recycling a kilogram of cotton garments saves 6,000 litres of water and avoids 3.6 kg of carbon dioxide emissions (equivalent to a 33 km car journey), compared with one kilogram of conventionally grown cotton. Furthermore, recycled cotton does not require pesticides or chemical fertilisers, which are used intensively in conventional cotton growing.
Economic benefits
Taking action to expand the source of collected textiles and investing in research and development will help to create new outlets for used textiles. Through our increasing demand for recycled yarn, we are helping to develop a market and a new commercial outlet for recovered textiles.
This is also helping to decrease the volume of textiles that end up in household waste or landfill sites, reducing household refuse processing costs for local authorities.
Stages of the initiative
Scope for replicating or relocating the initiative in other regions
This service is now available in all H&M stores worldwide (more than 3,800 retail outlets).
This initiative is easy to replicate. A growing number of chain stores have shown an interest in this service and are planning to introduce similar services for their customers. Within the H&M group, other brands are now also offering an equivalent service: Monki and &Other Stories.
Areas of activity
- Energy
- Recycling
- Trade
Resources
- Water
- Waste
- Textiles
Pillar(s) of the circular economy
- Extending useful service life
- Recycling
- Eco-design
- Sustainable procurement
Technical resources
Recovery process by H&M's partner, I:CO (SOEX group), which has the necessary infrastructures: reuse, recycling, waste-to-energyHuman resources
We have mobilised our own staff and use the product return logistics already in our system.
