H&M How To Turn Old Clothes Into Gold?

< p > since March this year, the Swedish fast fashion brand H&M is trying out the "old clothes recycling" project in Shanghai. Customers will pack the old idle a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > clothes < /a > to the store for recycling, and get a coupon.

H&M stores in Shanghai will pport the old clothes back to Sweden and give it to a local recycling company I:CO for recycling later.

This will bring this company a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > clothing < /a > in the old clothing resources, environmental protection image, promotion and many other benefits.

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< p > however, the circulation of old garments in China is still not allowed, because in traditional view, the old clothes are very unsanitary.

For the Chinese market with an annual output value of 1 trillion and 300 billion, the garment industry is still an annual "ten thousand ton" and not fully developed "rich ore", and the sooner it participates, the easier it will be.

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How can we recycle? To whom should we recycle? How can we achieve the recycling of resources? A case study of an old clothes recycling company named yuan yuan company in Shanghai will give readers a demonstration of how to try to establish a comprehensive industrial chain of "fashion waste" in China. P

Although the company is still in the stage of turning losses into profits, it will be very gratifying if we can give clothes the name of "resources" and not waste these old fashions.

In fact, in the United States, the recycling of old clothes in the whole garment industry has just begun.

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< p > this scene is repeated in a four storey H&M flagship store in Huaihailu Road, Shanghai. In the morning, the shop assistant just finished finishing the clothes on the rack. A cool customer dressed a cool woman brought a large package of clothes to the store and handed it to the shop assistant, who had a shirt, T-shirt and skirt. It looked eight or nine new, clean and neatly stacked, then threw it into a one meter high recycling bin and handed out a 15% off coupon to her.

The woman shopped around upstairs and downstairs, picked up some clothes, and checked out with coupons.

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< p > from March this year, the fast fashion brand H&M of Sweden tried out the "old clothes recycling" project at the Huaihailu Road store in Shanghai and the Lujiazui Zhengda square store. Before Beyonce hung up the sexy sexy posters for H&M endorsement, the big street window poster on the street was the old clothes recycling project. The green and white cardboard boxes were stamped with "P Longlive".

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< p > many customers in Shanghai are attracted by the "old clothes recycling" plan. They pack and pack their old idle clothes and send them to the store for recycling. Then they get a coupon to buy the latest summer wear that has just been put on the shelves.

Foreign netizens asked their official micro-blog about when their activities would turn to their cities.

According to the plan, the project will be ready for all stores in the country in the second half of the year.

After receiving the old clothes, the store in H&M Shanghai will deliver the old clothes to the warehouse in Kunshan the other day. After someone did a simple sorting job, they shipped back to Sweden and handed it to a local recycling company I:CO for recycling later.

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< p > > a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > Eric /a, chairman of the Recycling Committee (CTR), said: "clothes are the most recyclable items in their homes."

However, for the Chinese garment industry with an annual output value of 1 trillion and 300 billion, the old clothes recycling is a big problem.

At present, there is still a lack of a mature and mature industrial chain for recycling old clothes.

In Shanghai, a company named yuan yuan started the recycling of old clothes several years ago, but Yuanyuan's company is far from the source of the "fashion waste".

The fast fashion brand with huge market appeal can join in the industry chain and help to make up the weakest link in the old garment recycling industry chain.

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P > < strong > double pressure < /strong > /p >

This time, "P", H&M has a wide range of recycling, all clothing for all brands, underwear, or even a sock.

The response of the consumer is also surprisingly warm.

"You can get fifty or sixty bags of clothes on average and sixty or seventy bags for the weekend."

The manager of Huaihailu Road said.

Behind this most prosperous commercial street in Shanghai, there are still many old houses in Shanghai. Many old Shanghai living there know that they can recycle old clothes, and they will also send them to them. H&M's environmental protection action was initially interpreted as a "sales promotion tool". But the shop manager explained that some elderly people just sent their clothes that were not stored in the house for a long time and did not receive coupons.

"About 50% of customers will choose to use the coupons exchanged for the day to consume."

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< p > it is probably misreading to understand the power of H&M recycling old clothes as promotion needs.

In the new round of fast fashion brand competition, it needs to sacrifice the banner of "environmental protection" as soon as possible.

Compared with Japan's Uniqlo and Spain's Inditex's ZARA, H&M is "late" to the Chinese market.

Since H&M opened its first store in Shanghai in 2007, although it already has 126 stores in China, it still ranks the fast fashion brand.

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< p > H&M net profit in the first quarter of this year dropped by more than 3%.

H&M CEO Carle Persson Karl-Johan said that 2013 will be a challenging year. "In many markets of H&M, the popularity of a target=" _blank "href=" http://www.91se91.com/ "> dress" /a "retailing shows that it is facing the challenge of the situation." Karl-Johan "

The difficult macroeconomic environment and the bad weather in Europe and North America at the beginning of this quarter are all reasons.

The Chinese market has subsequently become the "field of hope" for fashion retailers.

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< p > however, environmental protection has become a stumbling block for the development of H&M in China.

In 2010, H&M was inspecting by the Shanghai quality supervision department and found that a knitted leisure coat pH was unqualified. In January 2012, it was once again "black list" because of the result of a knitted sweater fiber content measurement result inconsistent with the product label.

The old clothes recycling project is clearly intended to reshape the environmental image.

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< p > since 2009, H&M has formulated the sustainable development strategy of "seven commitments", including sustainable clothing recycling projects.

H&M Magnus, general manager of Greater China, Singapore and Malaysia, said in an interview with this magazine that the concept of sustainable development is critical to the future development of H&M company and the continuous growth of profits in Magnus.

Now, 95% of the world's textiles can be recycled, but most of the old clothes are taken to landfill, causing great environmental pollution and waste of resources. This is the original intention of the old clothes recycling plan.

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< p > this project has been implemented in Sweden since 2011.

Between 2011 and 2012, H&M carried out the recycling of old clothes in 17 stores in Sweden.

Progress has been very successful. H&M chief executive Persson has decided to extend the project to the world.

Starting in February 2013, H&M stores in 48 regions of the world began to recycle old clothes. In the Chinese market, the two main stores in Huaihailu Road and Zhengda square started trial operation first.

Huaihailu Road is the first store opened by H&M in China, and is also the largest flagship store in Shanghai.

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In order to highlight the environmental protection elements, stores specially set up an environmental protection clothing area. The most prominent place in the store is the model wearing P Conscious series.

The Conscious Collection was launched in 2010 by the H&M. All the clothes are made of environmentally-friendly fabrics, including organic cotton, renewable polyester, renewable polyester and environmental friendly hemp fiber.

The most amazing work is a water red fashion dress that is recycled from polyester bottles.

According to H&M's data, they have recycled 7 million 900 thousand polyester bottles equivalent to PET bottles.

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H&M, P, knows that designing environmentally friendly materials will greatly reduce the difficulty of breaking the "fashion waste" at the back of the industrial chain, and enable the downstream industry chain to recycle and reuse more effectively.

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< p > at present, the trial results in Shanghai are quite satisfactory. Huaihailu Road's recycling box broke down in the first week, and the clerk had to replace a new one as soon as possible.

They also promised to donate 0.2 yuan to charity for each UNICEF kilogram per kilogram of clothing.

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< p > in fact, the pressure of environmental protection has been overburdened by such a crowded city in Shanghai, with fashionable fashion, numerous clothing brands and street corner full of petty bourgeoisie sentiment.

According to statistics, the annual "clothing waste" produced in Shanghai is 130 thousand tons.

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< p > according to past concepts, charitable and donation routes are the main export of old clothes recycling, which is actually a misreading.

Internationally, donations can only solve about 15% of old clothes in Shanghai, which means less than 20 thousand tons of clothing is donated.

This is far from the total inventory of old clothes in residential areas.

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< p > on the other hand, the popularity of fast fashion exacerbates this gap.

With the improvement of material life, the frequency of people buying clothes increased, and the old clothes that were naturally eliminated increased. However, the civil service departments and charities usually needed winter clothing, down coats, coats, cotton padded clothes and coats to keep out the cold.

For the light and thin clothes with a higher rate of elimination, the traditional poverty alleviation habits are not necessarily necessities, because wearing warm is helping and dressing well.

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< p >, a large number of waste clothes enter the landfill, which aggravates the burden of the environment. Another part of the fuel enters the brick kiln and other combustion fields, and also pollutes the environment.

"Now people's requirements for fabrics, such as colourful and breathable colors, make the use of single fibers less and less. Only about 10% or 90% of the clothes are made of blended fibers."

Yang Yinghong, director of Yuanyuan company, said that because the clothes made of blended fibers can not be separated directly, landfill or combustion will release toxic substances and cause environmental pollution and deterioration.

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During the period of < p > World Expo, Shanghai found itself faced with great environmental pressure.

Since 1980s, municipal solid waste in Shanghai has been stacked in the old port area, that is, the east of Pudong New Area is near the Pudong International Airport.

Residents living in a 25 kilometer area can smell the aftertaste of garbage.

According to the research and classification of the relevant departments, old clothes accounted for 3% to 4%.

Therefore, during the period of World Expo, Shanghai decided to start the old clothes recycling project in Shanghai residential areas.

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< p > < strong > old clothes "rich ore" < /strong > /p >

Yuan yuan, located in Hongkou, Shanghai, started recycling old clothes in the community and schools in Shanghai in 2011. < p >

Walking around in the residential area of Shanghai, you can see that there are several iron rich "Panda" recycling bins, which are high with people. The head is the entrance of clothes, and the bottom is the staff pick up.

Such recycling bins have already placed more than 1200 in 990 pilot communities in Shanghai, and 305 tons of old clothes were recycled last year.

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< p > Yang Yinghong, 64, has been responsible for the clothing recycling project since he retired.

After the establishment of Yuanyuan in 2008, after the approval of the Shanghai municipal government, it was mainly engaged in sorting, sorting and regulating the comprehensive utilization of waste clothing.

There are only 25 employees.

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< p > in addition to placing recycling bins in various communities in Shanghai, the appointment and door-to-door collection services have also been opened.

After receiving a reservation call from the residents, there are usually 2 drivers and 1 drivers who come together to pick up their clothes.

Yang said one of his most impressions was that a family of three generations in Yangpu District had to move, giving up 306 kilograms of clothes at once, and "full of trucks."

But this kind of recycling does not cost any money, and residents voluntarily surrender even new clothes.

Therefore, Yang Yinghong said, "the old clothes we recycle are all social public resources, and the reuse of old clothes is actually the redistribution of social surplus value."

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< p > however, in the latest management of renewable resources recycling, waste clothing is still not included in the list of "renewable resources", and how to recycle it. Yang Yinghong's company is also groping for it.

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< p > for clothes that are worth wearing, they will be donated according to domestic practices.

Of the old clothes recycled every month, up to more than 10 tons of sweaters are removed, and about 40% of them will be reopened.

They organized a group of aunts in the community to knit sweaters and sent them to hope primary schools in Shandong, Anhui and Guangxi.

30 thousand sweaters are expected to be donated this year.

Most of the summer wear short sleeves, shirts, trousers will be arranged to Africa, to help the local poor, "we choose, organize, disinfect, dress will be very dignified."

Yang said.

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< p > but for most of the old clothes that can not be worn again, how to realize the recycling of resources is a more challenging subject.

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Less than 70% of the old clothes are classified according to their fabrics: woolen, cotton, chemical fiber, blend and < a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > leather < /a > rubber for recycling. The whole process of resource recovery goes to Shanghai.

At present, the "waste clothing recycling project" has been included in the 2012-2014 fifth and three year environmental protection action plan of Shanghai as a special item of circular economy and cleaner production in Shanghai.

Textile factories including Shandong and Jiangsu, as well as Uniqlo, Only, Mango and other garment companies are seeking to cooperate with Yuanyuan's old clothes recycling project, establish a recycling industry chain, or solve the inventory problem.

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< p > in the old clothes recycling chain of H&M, the role of Yuanyuan is I:CO, a young technology company in Sweden.

SOEX, the parent company of I:CO, is the largest Swiss group in the world specializing in textiles and a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > shoes "/a" class recycling and recycling.

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P I:CO spokeswoman Paul Doertenbach told Chinese entrepreneur magazine that there are five different ways for the company to process waste textiles, including rewear, reuse, recycling, application and upgrading of raw materials.

I:CO has the world's most advanced textile recycling processing plant and an exemplary process control system that enables textile recycling.

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< p > "now the recycling of textiles is more accurate. It should be called down cycling, because every link will reduce the quality of materials, and the loss of raw materials is almost irreversible."

Paul Doertenbach said.

But Doertenbach says I:CO is changing the situation.

"When the original ingredients of materials can be decomposed and reorganized, it means that raw materials can be reused as new materials in the new industry."

Doertenbach calls it up cycling and believes that only in this way can the garment industry form a truly sustainable cycle.

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< p > I:CO is currently strengthening its cooperation with recycling technology experts, scientific institutions and industry research institutes. Its goal is to find at least one material in each category of recyclables by 2020, and upgrade technology.

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< p > data show that about 10% of the old clothes purchased by I:CO are of good quality, wearable and sterilized into the market, and 30% to 40% have been processed as new materials, such as interior materials for automobile and building materials, carpet lining materials, stuffing stuffing of stuffed toys, raw materials for paper industry, etc.

There are also some products that have been pformed into equivalent materials, such as rag.

But only 0.3% of these clothes returned to the raw materials of clothing.

Therefore, a spokesman for I:CO concluded that at present, the old clothes that can be downgraded and recycled for 30%-40% are less than 0.3%.

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< p > but it is undeniable that although the old clothes recycling is difficult, it is still a ten million ton class of "rich ore" that has not yet been fully developed.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, the United States produced 11 million 340 thousand tons of clothing and household textiles in 2009, and the number will increase to 15 million 870 thousand tons by 2019.

The latest domestic figures from the China Resources Comprehensive Utilization Association are 26 million tons per year; therefore, the sooner participants are, the easier it will be.

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< p > some analysts have pointed out that in the current blank market of domestic recycled clothes, if H&M continues to promote the old clothes recycling project just like smashing subway advertisements, a large part of old clothes will be first recycled by H&M company.

This will bring benefits to the clothing company in old clothing resources, environmental protection image, promotion and so on.

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< p > < strong > "old clothes" predicament < /strong > /p >

< p > an interesting question is, why can a large professional clothing recycling company like I:CO be produced in Sweden? Perhaps one of the reasons is that there are mature old clothes market in Europe, the United States, Japan and other countries. The quality of good old clothes has priority in entering the market, but the current paction of old clothes is still banned in China.

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< p > not only does not have a special old clothes market, but also the private paid recycling is prohibited.

In the process of Yuan Yuan's recovery, there is a reflection of the public. What if we turn out the old clothes to be refurbished and sold again? But in the international arena, refurbishment and re sale is a legal cycle, but only necessary disinfection, treatment and marking of "old hand clothes".

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< p > Yang Yinghong has different opinions on this issue: "how to prolong the use time of waste clothing is the highest level to realize the comprehensive utilization of waste clothing."

In other words, being able to continue to wear is the best choice for recycling old clothes. It is the top part of the industrial chain of old clothes recycling.

Some analysts have pointed out that it will take 5-10 years to truly upgrade and recycle textile materials.

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P: the question is: who will buy old clothes? For many countries, it is more shameful to wear clothes than to buy old clothes.

In Africa, for example, they buy most of the old clothing from the United States every year, which has become the largest export volume in the United States.

The huge industrial chain supports thousands of garment companies in the United States.

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< p > but China still does not allow the circulation of old clothes.

The reason is simple: traditional clothes are very unhealthy, including viruses, bacteria and parasites.

Therefore, China prohibits the emergence of the old clothing market.

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< p > "in fact, disinfection is technically easy.

At present, we use ultraviolet radiation plus ozone to disinfect. In half an hour, bacteria, viruses and parasites on old clothes will be killed. Ozone also has the effect of eliminating peculiar smell. The taste and smell of cosmetics can be removed. "

Yang Yinghong said.

Experts and scholars in foreign countries seem to have reached a consensus in this regard: after the necessary disinfection and cleaning procedures, old clothes are in line with hygienic conditions and can be worn again.

On this issue, the Chinese seem to show a particularly cautious attitude. < /p >

< p > the industry believes that the reason why the garment recycling industry chain is missing is almost the same as that of all the domestic goods recycling industry chains.

The concept of environmental protection and recycling has just begun, and the lack of specialized technology and equipment for recycling has led to the loss of huge old clothes resources.

In terms of policy, old clothes recycling is not a significant source of performance for local governments, so it has never been seriously valued.

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< p > at present, the alliance of waste textiles under the China Resources Comprehensive Utilization Association is also limited to the utilization of waste textile materials, and the recycling and utilization of clothing is not yet in their key work.

In this respect, the sorting technology of waste textiles is not only lack of equipment but also technology. Our current sorting is still manual sorting.

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< p > as an enterprise entity, how to maintain the balance between input and output is also a problem.

All the profits of yuan yuan now come from the recycling of broken and useless clothes.

It is reported that the monthly operating cost of Yuanyuan is around 110 thousand yuan, and the average monthly recovery of 80 tons of old clothes is about 90 thousand yuan. The monthly loss is 20 thousand yuan.

Yang Yinghong said that when Shanghai's recycling box shop reaches 1500, it will be able to turn losses into profits. At present, it is 1200.

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< p > it is noteworthy that the mode of Yuanyuan is attracting more and more attention.

Last year, Spain's fashion company Mango brought 200 boxes of clothes to Yuan Yuan. The company donated to Qinghai, Guangxi, Shandong, Anhui and other poverty-stricken areas through Civil Affairs Bureau and women's Federation.

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The P yuan yuan Henan branch was formally established in Zhengzhou in April 16th, and will be reproduced in Henan.

At the same time, the Beijing municipal Party committee and municipal government also made clear that such clothes should be recycled. Nearly 30 cities such as Hangzhou, Kunming, Qingdao, Dalian, Tianjin and so on came to investigate, hoping to learn from the practice of yuan yuan.

In addition, under the promotion of the waste textiles alliance, several textile companies are establishing upstream and downstream supply and demand relationship with Yuanyuan company, trying to build a comprehensive industrial chain of waste textiles together.

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< p > in fact, in the United States, the old garment recycling industry has just started, and some people call it "the first time in history". The United States is trying to mobilize all sectors of the garment industry and all the links in the chain to recycle, including consumers, manufacturers, retailers, charities and recycling agencies.

For Yang Yinghong, this is, of course, the most ideal chain for recycling. It is the most comforting thing for clothes to be named as "resources" and not to waste these old fashions.

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