H&M Offers Cash for New Recycling Technologies
Sometimes all it takes is a little cash incentive to incite change. Or, in this instance, a sizable cash incentive.
H&M – the world’s second largest fashion retailer behind Zara’s parent company Inditex – introduced this week a new annual €1 million prize for awarded for new techniques in recycling that can be adopted by the multi-billion dollar company. The award was announced in conjunction with the retail debut of a new collection of H&M jeans crafted using recycled denim, Reuters reports.
“No company, fast-fashion or not, can continue exactly like today,” H&M CEO Karl-John Persson told the news service. “The (prize’s) largest potential lies with finding new technology that means we can recycle the fibers with unchanged quality.”
The retailer says that only about 20% of recycled material is salvageable for a new pair of jeans, because “because the fiber length is shortened in the shredding process, impacting quality.”
While responsible fashion labels around the world are adopting sustainable and environmentally-friendly business practices – from Kering, as discussed at this year’s FTF: Conference, to Nudie Jeans – the issue is of particular concern for fast-fashion companies, who have faced increasing pressure from advocates in light of the environmental impact of their unceasing production cycle and the perceived disposable nature of their clothing, most of which ends up in landfills once discarded.
Companies like H&M also have a vested interest in recycling from a business perspective. It’s projected that by 2030, demand for water will outpace supply by 40%, sending the price of cotton – which accounts for 2.6% of global water use – through the roof. (And that’s not even mentioning the fact that fashion is to blame for the toxicity of a huge chunk of that remaining water; it’s estimated that 20% of industrial water pollution is a direct result of textile treatment and dyeing.)
While it’s possible to make the argument that H&M’s environmental initiatives are strictly self-serving, the retailer’s attention to sustainability and the volume at which they’re broadcasting it could set a precedent for other similar companies to do the same. The question that remains, of course, is ultimately whether or not fast fashion and environmental responsibility can ever truly coexist.
