H&M’s latest clothing line takes recycling to a new level with a line of clothing and accessories created from materials, including food waste, that had been destined for the trash bin. Scheduled to be available online today, the collection includes clothing made from food waste fiber, fabrics created with wood pulp, and recycled fibers. Wine byproducts are the ingredients behind the fast-fashion giant’s latest vegan leather shoes.
The collection includes four materials and processes new to H&M’s sustainable fashion arsenal. Among them is Eastman’s Naia Renew yarn, which contains 60 percent certified wood fiber and 40 percent recycled waste plastic.
We aRe SpinDye’s dyed recycled polyester also is part of H&M’s collection. In this process, the recycled material is dyed before becoming fabric. The company says its system uses 75 percent less water and 90 percent fewer chemicals than traditional means. Another process from Made of Air results in sunglasses made from what it says is carbon-negative plastic.
H&M also adopts it to pull natural and synthetic fibers from textile waste at various stages of the production process offered by Texloop Recycling. Besides, hemp-based fibers come from Agraloop, a company that manufactures textile fibers from fibrous food waste. Agraloop’s fibers, in particular, stand out as it is a 2018 H&M Foundation Global Change Award first-prize winner. The company’s production process also eliminates greenhouse gas emissions commonly resulting from fiber production, upcycles wastewater, and generates organic fertilizer.
H&M insists it continues to deepen its commitment to sustainability. For the past seven years, the owners of the H&M Group, the Stefan Persson family, has been donating to the H&M Foundation to help the company meet the 2030 deadline of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) drawn up by the United Nations.
