H&M to transform unwanted garments with 'Looop'

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 to 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 it is working with many exciting projects to reach this goal.

"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," said 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 have to be added during the process, and H&M works 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 it became the first fashion retailer with a global garment collecting programme. Now, it 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 watch Looop transform their old garment into a new favorite. 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 per cent.

Looop is enabled 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.

ALCHEMPro News Desk (PC)