Gold From Waste Clothing

Someone walked into H&M to buy fashion, and others walked into H&M to return "junk" - H&M was trying to turn the image of its fashion garbage maker. In March 2013, there was a one meter high recycle bin at the Huaihailu Road store and Zhengda Plaza store in H&M, Shanghai. The box is printed with green fonts: enduring fashion. This is not a cross-border series launched by H&M and a luxury brand. Instead, it is a "H&M old clothes recycling operation" implemented in 49 global markets since February 2013. It is part of the conscious action of H&M, which has been extended to 53 countries and regions in the world.

Fast fashion mode makes H&M and Zara faster and faster from design to a new product. clothes It has become a fast moving consumer goods, and its service life is becoming shorter and shorter. clothing Garbage. According to the latest data of China Resources Comprehensive Utilization Association, about 26 million tons of old clothes are thrown into trash cans every year in China. Only a city in Shanghai produces 130 thousand tons of clothing waste per year.

In Sweden, where H&M headquarters is located, the average number of clothes discarded per person per year has reached 8 kg. H&M just saw this huge old clothes recycling market. From 2011 to 2012, 17 clothing stores in Sweden took the lead in recycling old clothes, causing strong repercussions. Subsequently, H&M CEO John Persson (Karl-Johan Persson) extended the project to the world. The old clothes recycling project was launched in all H&M stores in China in August 8, 2013, covering 45 cities and nearly 140 stores.

Recovery Army

An old clothing recycling campaign launched by H&M swept the country. As of November 8, 2013, the number of old clothes recovered by H&M in mainland China has reached 42600 kg. "When the clothes collected in the store are accumulated to three boxes, they will be transported to the Kunshan Huaqiao logistics center near Shanghai and transported three times a week. Then they will be transported to the nearest factory by I:Collect for classification and recycling. H&M Shanghai Nanjing West Road store manager told reporters. According to regulations, the maximum number of donations per person per day is two H&M shopping bags. Taking H&M Nanjing West Road store as an example, the number of donations per day has reached 30 to 40. At the same time, in order to encourage consumers to participate in recycling operations, H&M issued 15% off coupons to all donors.

How to "digest" these fashionable garbage, Swiss Corporation I:Collect can be called H&M's behind the scenes hero, its parent company SOEX is the largest in the world. Spin Product and shoes Companies that recycle and reuse. From the recycling of old clothes, logistics and transportation, classification, to the final recycling, each link is fully participated by I:Collect.

In fact, the proportion of textiles and clothing that can be discarded can be reused up to 95%. Now I:Collect has three factories in Europe, the United States and India. "Our recycling plant will be built in those countries whose textile daily recovery ranges from 300 to 500 tons. We look forward to our business in the Chinese market at an early date. " I:Collect company Chief executive officer Stephan Wiegand told reporters. In 2014, I:Collect will also set up its first representative office in Shanghai to formally enter the Chinese market.

The cooperation mode between H&M and I:Collect is clear and simple. The benefits gained through recycling will be paid to I:Collect according to the market price per kilogram, but the cost in the process of recovery will need to be deducted from H&M. The two sides also declared that the activity is non-profit, mainly for environmental protection and charity purposes. For example, every collection of 1000 kilograms of old clothes will automatically donate 0.02 euros to charity through charity star. H&M's profits from the old clothes recycling operation will be donated to the environmental conscious foundation. These funds will be devoted to investment in some innovative projects on textile recycling. {page_break}

In China, there are also some old clothes recycling companies similar to I:Collect, such as Yuanyuan company in Shanghai, mainly through the pilot projects in Shanghai communities and schools to recycle old clothes, some of which are donated to hope primary school. The more "art" approach is Chinese independent clothing. Designer Zhang Na launched the Reclothing Bank project. "It is mainly through the redesign of old clothes to connect people's memories with clothes." Zhang Na told reporters. However, the above models are unable to meet the huge demand of the increasing "clothing waste" being recycled. The rapid fashion giants, represented by H&M, take advantage of the brand's appeal to directly connect the brand with the recycling industry, which can quickly attract large numbers of consumers into the recycling operation and speed up the recycling of the old garment recycling industry chain.

　 upcycle

With the help of I:Collcet, H&M has found a new solution. I:Collect will classify and evaluate recycled clothing according to 400 different standards, such as the degree of textile damage. The final recyclables are classified into the following categories: re dressing, recycling, recycling and energy production. According to Stephan Wiegand, this classification still needs to be done manually, but I:Collect is working with other clothing brand partners to explore the new electronic automation classification technology -- intelligent system based on scanning chip. "The ultimate goal is to let these fabrics speak for themselves." Stephan Wiegand said, "under such a closed loop cycle, we can know what materials each piece of clothing can be generated, and what materials will be needed to produce new things. But now there is very little information.

In the view of Stephan Wiegand, only by upgrading and reconstructing can we truly achieve the recycling of energy. When recycling, it usually needs to be decomposed into more basic materials. The quality is usually reduced, and the process requires energy consumption, such as making a child's runway with recycled old shoes. Upgrading is different. It creates value-added behavior by transforming discarded products into another higher quality product. This is the most advanced reuse, so it is called upgrading. The goal of I:Collect is that by 2020, at least one material can be used in every category of recyclable materials for upgrading and utilization technology.

H&M has displayed a reconstituted red dress in the shop. It comes from the "environmental conscious action series" in 2010. All the clothes are made of environmentally-friendly fabrics, including organic cotton, renewable polyester, renewable polyester and environmental friendly hemp fiber. H&M has achieved recycling of materials such as cotton, wool and polyester fibers. In H&M fashion, recycled recycled polyester fibers and recycled wool materials can be seen. However, at present, only 0.3% of the H&M and I:Collect recycling items are returned to the raw materials for production. In other words, the current proportion of clothes upgrading is only 0.3%.

I:Collect will take account of the recycling of materials from the preceding stage of the design and production of clothing. The idea was put forward by chemist Michael Brangat and architect William MacDonald. It was called "cradle to cradle". Stephan Wiegand revealed that I:Collect has been working closely with the two people to explore the "cradle to cradle" mode of production. Today, I:Collect and Puma have successfully CO produced "cradle to cradle" products - InCycle series of Puma backpacks and other recyclable products, as well as basketball T-shirts and other degradable products.

Fashion waste is shining brilliantly in a totally new way. Forerunners have already tasted the sweetness. Those old clothes that should have been thrown into the dustbin were rebuilt with vitality, creating higher commercial value and environmental value for the company. Garment companies represented by H&M, clothing recyclers represented by I:Collect jointly promote the old clothing recycling campaign behind them.