H&M and Artist M.I.A. Join Together to Launch World Recycle Week
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–H&M is joining forces with artist M.I.A. for the retailer’s latest
sustainable campaign, World Recycle Week, an ambitious Garment
Collecting movement. From April 18th to April 24th,
H&M, the first fashion company to launch a global garment collecting
program, aims to collect 1,000 tons of unwanted garments from customers
in its more than 3,600 stores worldwide. The initiative is part of H&M’s
goal to close the loop in fashion by recycling garments to create
reusable textile fibers. To help raise awareness, M.I.A. has filmed an
exclusive new music video for H&M highlighting the environmental impact
of clothing going into landfills around the world. The video will debut
on April 11th at hm.com.
To mark the first ever World Recycle Week, H&M intends to create a viral
campaign to generate a global recycling movement. The video, starring
M.I.A., features a diverse supporting cast including models, actors,
dancers, and social media mavens, who will take to their social channels
leading up to World Recycle Week, encouraging everyone to participate in
the #HMrehaul video call to action. The term rehaul is being exclusively
used as the antithesis to a blogger haul video, which typically show
items recently purchased. #HMrehaul videos will exhibit customers around
the world filming the garments they intend to recycle followed by a drop
off at their local H&M store’s collection bin, available in every store
worldwide.
Garment Collecting at H&M is simple and can have a profound effect.
Since 2013, customers have been invited to drop off garments from any
brand and in any condition, to any H&M store. These garments are
recycled into a second life, and customers are ensuring that fewer
garments go into landfills. In return, U.S. customers who recycle
receive a 15% discount to use towards their next purchase at H&M. During
the World Recycle Week period, customers will receive a 30% coupon as a
thank you for their participation.
Since first launching the Garment Collecting initiative, H&M has
collected over 25,000 tons of clothing, and in 2014, introduced its
first collection using recycled fibers from the donated garments to
create a “Close the Loop” collection. Close The Loop is a central
commitment to H&M’s Conscious Actions for sustainability. The purpose is
to create a closed loop for textiles, so that unwanted clothes can be
reused and recycled to create fresh fibers for new products. The long
term goal is to have zero garments going to landfills, as well as saving
on natural resources. All textiles are welcome including odd socks, old
towels, or the dress with a hole as nothing is too torn, worn, or used
for a second life. By recycling just one T-shirt, 555 gallons of water
can be saved; imagine the impact of 1,000 tons of garments collected
during World Recycle Week.
For more information on Garment Collecting and Close the Loop, please
visit www.hm.com/garmentcollecting.
H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (publ) was founded in Sweden in 1947 and is
quoted on Nasdaq Stockholm. H&M’s business idea is to offer fashion and
quality at the best price in a sustainable way. In addition to H&M, the
group includes the brands & Other Stories, Cheap Monday, COS, Monki and
Weekday as well as H&M Home. The H&M Group has more than 3,900 stores in
61 markets including franchise markets. In 2015, sales including VAT
were SEK 210 billion and the number of employees is more than 148,000.
For
further information, visit hm.com.
Contacts
H&M
Marybeth Schmitt, 212-564-9922
Mediarelations.US@hm.com
or
Paul
Wilmot Communications
Molly Brown, 212-206-7447
MBrown@paulwilmot.com
