With the goal of realizing a circular fashion industry, H&M has created a garment-to-garment recycling system that enables customers to convert old clothing into new pieces.
Entitled ‘Looop’, the recycling system is made up of container-sized machines that disassemble and assemble clothing. First, old and unwanted garments are cleaned before being shredded into fibres. New yarn is then made which are used to knit new clothing. In order for the garments created using the Looop system to maintain durability, sustainably sourced virgin materials are added.
No water or chemicals are required to operate Looop, making the recycling system more sustainable than creating new clothing from scratch.
“We are constantly exploring new technology and innovations to help transform the fashion industry as we are working to reduce the dependency on virgin resources,” Pascal Brun, head of sustainability at H&M says. “Getting customers on board is key to achieve real change and we are so excited to see what Looop will inspire.”
The first Looop system will open in one of H&M’s three Drottninggatan stores in Stockholm, Sweden on October 12.
Looop is part of H&M’s desire to have all its materials to be either recycled or sustainably sourced by 2030. According to H&M, the figure in 2019 was 57%.
All images in this article are courtesy fo H&M.
