as it aims to drive recycling initiatives. (Photo by © Erik Freeland/CORBIS SABA/Corbis via Getty Images)Corbis via Getty Images
Circular economy, recycling, reuse, renting instead of owning. It’s the trend for 2023 and the movement has gained even more momentum today thanks to global fast fashion retailer H&M.
Entering the textile sorting business through a fashion industry waste disposal company is a potentially very significant step.
It’s also the company’s biggest announcement in a series of initiatives aimed at reversing the environmental damage of which fast fashion is a major cause.
In its latest move, the Swedish giant has set up a joint venture with recycling company Remondis with the aim of extending the life of around 40 million items of clothing this year alone.
The company is called Looper Textile Co. – no doubt a nod to the Looop system it created in a Stockholm shop to regenerate new garments from old ones – and will collect used and discarded clothes to sell to second-hand -Resell to fashion companies and the recycling industry.
“We take unsorted waste and turn it into something usable,” Looper Textile chief executive officer Emily Bolon told Bloomberg.
Looper textile plans
Looper Textile plans to collect garments from municipal containers across Europe, alongside H&M’s in-store collection program launched back in 2013.
The company estimates that up to 60% of the items will be suitable for resale, distributed through a network of companies online, through low-cost second-hand chains in Eastern Europe and through importers in Africa.
About a third of apparel will go to recycling plants to be “downcycled,” mostly into car insulation or sofa padding, while the remaining about 5% of garments that can’t be reused or recycled are incinerated for energy, Bolon said.
Only about a third of the world’s unwanted clothing is collected, according to consultancy McKinsey & Co., and of that less than 1% is recycled into new fashion, according to the UK non-profit Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
H&M has led a number of sustainability campaigns. In January, Roblox and H&M launched an “immersive gaming experience” called Looptopia, which allows players to experiment with materials and patterns and create virtual clothing items for their avatar. It also includes social interaction, clothes trading and styling sessions.
Stockholm in autumn 2020.HM
In 2019, H&M in Stockholm launched a rental service for selected outfits from its Conscious Exclusive collection and in 2020 unveiled a Looop machine for a store in the same city, allowing consumers to reuse old clothes.
Last summer, H&M launched a denim range made from textile fibers using recycled materials and launched a joint maker initiative with IKEA to showcase local creatives at Livat shopping center in west London.
H&M result hit
The moves come at a time when H&M has been hit by high clothing prices and the cost of exiting its Russian business.
In January, the group reported net sales for the three months ended November 30, 2022, up 10% year over year to $5.9 billion, despite store closures in China and Russia. Net sales for the full year between December 1, 2021 and November 30, 2022 increased 12% year over year to $21.4 billion.
“Our decision to cease operations in Russia had a significant negative impact on our results,” Chief Executive Helena Helmersson said of the results.
“Instead of passing on the full costs to our customers, we have decided to further strengthen our market position. The increase in raw material and freight costs combined with a historically strong US dollar has resulted in significant increases in the cost of purchasing goods,” she added.
In fact, pulling out of Russia and a cost-cutting program cost the company nearly $252 million, and the group closed 336 stores worldwide in 2022, including 175 in Russia and Belarus.
However, the company is more optimistic about 2023, with revenue up 5% in the last December-January period.
follow me Twitter or LinkedIn. Cash my website.
I’m a global retail and real estate specialist who looks behind the headlines to find out where retail is headed. I work as Editor-in-Chief for M`IC and Editor for World Retail Congress, two of the largest annual international retail events. I also organise, speak and chair conferences around the world focusing on how people are changing and what this means for the retail, food & beverage and leisure industries. And it’s complicated! Forget the tired mantra that killed online stores and instead remember that retail has always been dog-eat-dog: celebrity names rise and fall fast, and only retailers who embrace change will survive. Don’t think it doesn’t matter, your pension funds own these malls!
Continue readingread less
Comments are closed.