#Recycling / Circular Economy

2020-10-08

Recycling system ’Looop’ helps H&M transform unwanted garments into new fashion favourites

H&M is thrilled to soon offer customers in Sweden the possibility to transform unwanted garments into new fashion favourites with the help from its new garment-to-garment recycling system ‘Looop’. H&M is committed to closing the loop on fashion and this machine visualizes to customers that old textiles hold a value and should never go to waste.

Looop opens to the public in one of H&M's Drottninggatan stores in Stockholm on October 12. This is the first time this garment-to-garment recycling system is shown in store by a fashion retailer and H&M is proud to soon offer customers the opportunity to watch this container-sized machine recycle their old textiles into something new. This is part of a bigger plan - H&M's ambition is to become fully circular and climate positive and the retailer is working with many exciting projects to reach this goal. We must innovate materials and processes while inspiring customers to keep their garments in use for as long as possible.

“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. Getting customers on board is key to achieve real change and we are so excited to see what Looop will inspire”

Pascal Brun, Head of Sustainability at H&M

Looop uses a technique that dissembles and assembles old garments into new ones. The garments are cleaned, shredded into fibres and spun into new yarn which is then knitted into new fashion finds. Some sustainably sourced virgin materials need to be added during the process, and H&M of course work to make this share as small as possible. The system uses no water and no chemicals, thus having a significantly lower environmental impact than when producing garments from scratch.

H&M wants to lead the change towards a sustainable fashion industry. In 2013 H&M became the first fashion retailer with a global garment collecting program. Now, H&M is taking the next step with its garment-to-garment recycling system Looop. For 100 Swedish kronor, members of H&M's loyalty club can use Looop to transform their old garment into a new favourite. For non-members the fee is 150 Swedish kronor. All proceeds go to projects related to research on materials. By 2030 H&M aims for all its materials to be either recycled or sourced in a more sustainable way, a figure that for 2019 was at 57%.

Looop is created by the non-profit H&M Foundation, together with research partner HKRITA (The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel) and Hong Kong-based yarn spinner Novetex Textiles.