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Recycling Fast Fashion at H&M: Doing good or simple greenwashing?

Matthew Martell compiled this case for use in the Beedie Case Academy at Simon Fraser University for the assigned

session modules and in-class discussions. Information was taken from different sources to create a scenario that the

organization might be facing.

Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of H&M, picked up a copy of Esquire Magazine and began reading a

story that did not paint a flattering picture of his organization:

Fast Fashion is Absolutely Destroying the Planet And buying a

Prius won't make up for it. 1

You can buy a hybrid car. You can use cloth bags at the grocery store. Hell, you can even put solar panels on your roof. But if you're buying fast fashion, you're still destroying the planet.

In fact, it doesn't even necessarily have to be fast fashion. If you're buying clothes from anywhere and only wearing them for a single season, you guessed it: You're also destroying the planet.

According to a 2013 report, the global apparel industry produced 150 billion garments in 2010, enough to provide 20 new articles of clothing for every person on the planet. And it's only gotten worse since then. Today, the fashion industry is the second most polluting industry on earth. And the primary culprit is fast fashion—well, that and the culture of throwaway clothing that it has inspired.

A recent article by Fast Company pointed out that fashion was mostly left out of the recent Paris climate talks, which makes for a major swing and a miss by world leaders intent on cleaning up our planet. While the focus on energy efficiency, conservation, and renewable resources is extremely important, without adding disposable fashion to the agenda, it's hard to imagine much headway will ever be made.

1 Christian, “Fast Fashion Is Absolutely Destroying the Planet.”

“if you're buying

fast fashion, you're

still destroying the

planet.”

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652612006300

https://www.fastcoexist.com/3065532/there-is-a-major-climate-issue-hiding-in-your-closet-fast-fashion

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The major issue is right now is that we don't keep our clothes. And the amount of clothing production needed to meet our new level of demand creates a wealth of both environmental and human rights issues. For most people, to be able buy a new wardrobe every year, clothes need to be cheap. And that's where the problems start.

First there's the U.S. apparel manufacturing industry, which has shed 800,000 jobs in the last few decades due to the demand for low-cost labor. And those jobs will likely never come back, regardless of what our next president says. Then there are the criminally low wages paid to those in the countries where apparel manufacturing has gone. As Fast Company points out, though the apparel industry is the largest employer of women globally, less than 2 percent of those women actually earn a living wage.

Next there's the issue of electricity use. A lot of power is needed to produce 150 billion-plus articles of clothing each year, and most of the countries where those garments are produced use coal power. This helps to explain why the apparel industry is responsible for 10 percent of all carbon emissions globally. Clothing production is also extremely land- and water- intensive, made all the worse by the fact that the apparel industry is one of the worst offenders when it comes to introducing toxic chemicals into the worldwide water supply.

Also, in order to sustain fast fashion demand, natural fibers have largely been substituted for synthetic ones, i.e. plastics, i.e. fabrics made from oil. According to the article in Fast Company, oil-based polyester has now replaced cotton as the number one fiber in our clothing. And then, just to add to this ongoing environmental clusterf**k, there's the issue of shipping, which both consumes non-renewable energy sources (oil) and adds more pollution into the environment.

And while brands like H&M try to soothe our consciences by launching celebrity-hyped recycling campaigns, the simple fact is that such moves will do little to help the clean up the planet. After all, you're probably going to buy new clothes to replace the ones you just recycled.

And that's the problem.

SCOTT CHRISTIAN, ESQUIRE MAGAZINE, Nov 14, 2016

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After reading the article, Karl-Johan began to wonder if the author had a point. Had H&M gone

too far in the quest for volume and profit or was H&M responding to what consumers wanted?

While this criticism was not new and H&M was trying to take steps to reduce their impact,

http://www.esquire.com/style/news/a50548/made-in-america-fashion/

http://www.esquire.com/style/news/a43845/hm-mia-recycling-ad/

http://www.esquire.com/author/12141/scott-christian/

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programs like the Recycle Your Clothes were an important part in putting forward a positive

image.

RECYCLING YOUR CLOTHES H&M strongly believes that fashion is too important to end up in the dump. In 2013, H&M

launched a worldwide initiative to either Rewear, Reuse or Recycle clothing and opened its

4300+ stores as collection points. H&M did not restrict clothing to only their brand — any

clothing would be accepted2.

H&M group stores have collected more than 50,000 tonnes3 (equivalent of 100 million t-shirts)

since the program launched in 20134. Once the old garments are dropped off in a store, H&M’s

partner I:CO collects and sorts them into three categories5, as depicted in Error! Reference

source not found.:

Three Types of Recycling Reuse – clothing that can be worn again will be sold as second hand.

Close loop – old clothes and textiles will be turned into other products, such as cleaning

cloths or new clothing.

Open loop – everything else is turned into textile fibres, and used for things like insulation.

2 “H&M Group | Recycle Your Clothes.” 3 “H&M - Charitystar.” 4 “H&M Group Sustainability Report 2016.” 5 “I.”

Figure 1: Circular Economy in the Textile Industry

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THE FASHION INDUSTRY Today, the fashion industry is using more resources than the planet allows. By recycling your

clothes, you help reduce the amount of natural resources needed to produce new garments6.

With current technology and methods, a single item of natural fibre clothing can contain up to

20% recycled fibres (recycled cotton or recycled wool) without any loss of quality or durability.

Synthetic materials such as polyester can already contain 100% recycled material. As

technology improves, this number for natural fabrics will increase, however the first step will be

to reduce the amount of clothing that goes directly to landfills.

Initiatives such as those promoted by

H&M help reduce the environmental

footprint of fast fashion because they

decrease the amount of natural

resources to produce new garments.

H&M has even taken some of the

closed loop material and turned it into

new collections, such as the denim

collection (see Error! Reference source

not found.). According to H&M, up to

95% of clothes that are thrown away

could be recycled and/or reworn, and

they would like to see this number

improved by increasing awareness and

developing effective methods for unneeded fashion.

H&M and CharityStar Beginning in 2013, H&M started donating 0.02 Euros per

kilogram of clothing collected7. These funds would be

collected and managed on a country-by-country basis and

donated to local initiatives as chosen by the H&M Foundation

(see breakdown of selected countries in Table 1 on next page).

These efforts are managed by CharityStar

(www.hm.charitystar.com). To improve the clothing recycling process, the H&M foundation

partnered with the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel, where they develop

technologies to recycle clothes made from textile blends into new clothes. Social projects are

focused on equality and inclusion of marginalized groups.

6 “H&M Group | Recycle Your Clothes.” 7 “H&M - Charitystar.”

Figure 2: H&M Recycled Denim Collection

http://www.hm.charitystar.com/

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Table 1: H&M Recycling for Selected Countries

Country (selected)

Population Clothing Recycled

(kg)

Funds Donated

(€) Charity

Total 54.9 million 1,100,000 Various

United States 324 million 2.9 million 58,905 Make America Beautiful

United Kingdom 66 million 2.6 million 51,025 British Red Cross

Canada 36 million 0.6 million 11,166 unicef

China 1.4 billion 2.1 million 41,479 unicef

Sweden 10 million 1.8 million 35,586 unicef

Germany 82 million 7.4 million 147,272 Ethiopian Aid

Netherlands 17 million 2.3 million 45,643 unicef

ACCUSATIONS OF GREENWASHING In an earlier article, Matt Miller made accusations of “Greenwashing” after a recent H&M

campaign with British rapper and activist, M.I.A.8. Greenwashing involves making misleading or

unsubstantiated claims about the environmental benefits of a product, when the company

actually operates in a way that damages the environment9.

The nature of fast fashion involves quickly replacing one outfit with another cooler outfit in a

short period of time. This is made possible due to the relatively low cost of new clothing. In

2014, H&M made over 600 million items. While H&M frequently referenced its use of organic

cotton, only 13.7% of their cotton is organic.

Miller asks if it is appropriate for H&M to position itself as an environmentally friendly and

responsible company by publishing music videos in support of World Recycling Week10 and its

efforts to increase the recycling clothing, a problem they helped create. He believes that H&M’s

real purpose for associating with M.I.A. is to increase store visits or the amount of clothing

recycled.

THE NEXT CAMPAIGN In preparation for the spring 2018 recycling campaign, Mr. Persson wondered if they should

continue with a similar recycling campaign or try something different? Before deciding if he

should give up the Recycle Your Clothes program, he wanted to speak to some of his most

concerned and dedicated consumers: young people aged 15 to 24. Mr. Persson and his senior

managers decided the best way to accomplish this step was to ask for presentations from some

student groups.

8 Miller, “Don’t Let M.I.A. and H&M Fool You Into Thinking Fast Fashion Is Sustainable.” 9 Staff, “Greenwashing.” 10 Miller, “Don’t Let M.I.A. and H&M Fool You Into Thinking Fast Fashion Is Sustainable.”

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The management team was interested in whether they should continue with the current

recycling program, change it or shut it down completely. If changes or a new program were

needed, what would it look like? Would they be able to roll it out by April 2018? Most

importantly, is this an issue that young people care about?

Each team is tasked with delivering:

1. Short term plan – Develop a plan to increase the recycling rate. Your plan must be able

to be implemented and completed within the next six months, and you have a budget of

$300,000 to implement and promote it (the cost of processing and recycling is a

separate budget).

2. Long-term mission – H&M intends to update its corporate Mission Statement. Mr.

Persson wants your group to draft a new Mission Statement to reflect how you believe

H&M will achieve its purpose over the next 10 years. Your group should be ready to

defend your draft Mission Statement.

SOURCE ARTICLES Christian, Scott. “Fast Fashion Is Absolutely Destroying the Planet.” Esquire, November 14, 2016.

http://www.esquire.com/style/news/a50655/fast-fashion-environment/. “H&M - Charitystar.” H&M - Charitystar, April 10, 2016. http://hundm.charitystar.com. “H&M Group | Recycle Your Clothes.” Accessed September 27, 2017.

https://about.hm.com/en/sustainability/get-involved/recycle-your-clothes.html. “H&M Group Sustainability Report 2016.” H&M Group, 2016.

http://sustainability.hm.com/content/dam/hm/about/documents/en/CSR/2016%20Sustainabili ty%20report/HM_group_SustainabilityReport_2016_FullReport_en.pdf.

“I:CO.” Accessed November 13, 2017. http://www.ico-spirit.com/en/. Miller, Matt. “Don’t Let M.I.A. and H&M Fool You Into Thinking Fast Fashion Is Sustainable.” Esquire,

April 12, 2016. http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/news/a43845/hm-mia-recycling- ad/.

Staff, Investopedia. “Greenwashing.” Investopedia, November 7, 2007. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/greenwashing.asp.