NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--H&M is joining forces with artist M.I.A. for the retailer’s latest sustainable campaign, World Recycle Week, an ambitious Garment Collecting movement. From April 18th to April 24th, H&M, the first fashion company to launch a global garment collecting program, aims to collect 1,000 tons of unwanted garments from customers in its more than 3,600 stores worldwide. The initiative is part of H&M’s goal to close the loop in fashion by recycling garments to create reusable textile fibers. To help raise awareness, M.I.A. has filmed an exclusive new music video for H&M highlighting the environmental impact of clothing going into landfills around the world. The video will debut on April 11th at hm.com.
To mark the first ever World Recycle Week, H&M intends to create a viral campaign to generate a global recycling movement. The video, starring M.I.A., features a diverse supporting cast including models, actors, dancers, and social media mavens, who will take to their social channels leading up to World Recycle Week, encouraging everyone to participate in the #HMrehaul video call to action. The term rehaul is being exclusively used as the antithesis to a blogger haul video, which typically show items recently purchased. #HMrehaul videos will exhibit customers around the world filming the garments they intend to recycle followed by a drop off at their local H&M store’s collection bin, available in every store worldwide.
Garment Collecting at H&M is simple and can have a profound effect. Since 2013, customers have been invited to drop off garments from any brand and in any condition, to any H&M store. These garments are recycled into a second life, and customers are ensuring that fewer garments go into landfills. In return, U.S. customers who recycle receive a 15% discount to use towards their next purchase at H&M. During the World Recycle Week period, customers will receive a 30% coupon as a thank you for their participation.
Since first launching the Garment Collecting initiative, H&M has collected over 25,000 tons of clothing, and in 2014, introduced its first collection using recycled fibers from the donated garments to create a “Close the Loop” collection. Close The Loop is a central commitment to H&M’s Conscious Actions for sustainability. The purpose is to create a closed loop for textiles, so that unwanted clothes can be reused and recycled to create fresh fibers for new products. The long term goal is to have zero garments going to landfills, as well as saving on natural resources. All textiles are welcome including odd socks, old towels, or the dress with a hole as nothing is too torn, worn, or used for a second life. By recycling just one T-shirt, 555 gallons of water can be saved; imagine the impact of 1,000 tons of garments collected during World Recycle Week.
For more information on Garment Collecting and Close the Loop, please visit www.hm.com/garmentcollecting.
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) was founded in Sweden in 1947 and is
quoted on Nasdaq Stockholm. H&M’s business idea is to offer fashion and
quality at the best price in a sustainable way. In addition to H&M, the
group includes the brands & Other Stories, Cheap Monday, COS, Monki and
Weekday as well as H&M Home. The H&M Group has more than 3,900 stores in
61 markets including franchise markets. In 2015, sales including VAT
were SEK 210 billion and the number of employees is more than 148,000.
For
further information, visit hm.com.
