Business

Greenpeace calls out H&M’s Recycling Week as an “illusion”

Fashion Revolution Week begins April 18 in commemoration of the collapse of the Rana Plaza on April 24, 2013. On the same day, H&M is launching World Recycling Week. Together with its customers, H&M plans to collect and recycle 1,000 tonnes of used clothing.

Greenpeace Detox My Fashion, Project Lead, Kirsten Brodde, said, “H&M’s Recycling Week is in reality a week of illusions since only one percent of collected clothing can be used as recycled fibres. As an example, in 2015 H&M sold 1.3 million items of clothing containing recycled content and that used only 130 tonnes of recycled fibres. A poor ratio by any standard meaning it will take several years before the collected 1,000 tonnes are reused in new clothes. But this is not told to the customers.

“The best solution for combating textile waste is to stay away from impulse purchases from fast fashion retailers. Clothes should also be used over a long time and repaired if necessary. Recycling should not be an excuse to produce lots of disposable ware, because every single T-shirt being produced harms the environment. Therefore an H&M Vintage Week or an H&M Repair Service would have been more desirable.”