H&M has started accepting used clothes in the
line’s stores worldwide this spring. Since February, people have been able to
bring their old clothes to the stores - regardless of the label and condition
of the clothes - and get a 15 percent discount coupon for each bag of clothes
they give away. One person can bring two bags of clothes per day at most.
The first H&M stores to start the collecting of
used clothes in Finland were in Helsinki, but the system is expanding to stores
around the whole country.
In its bulletin, H&M said that it is the first
company in fashion industry that encourages starting these kinds of collections
in a large range and this way strives for decreasing the amount of clothes that
end up in waste. According to the company, even 95 percent of textile waste
ending up in landfills could be reused or recycled, depending on the condition
of the clothes.
I:Collect, a partner of H&M, collects the clothes,
sorts them, recycles them as wipes or insulation material for car industry, or
takes them to power production.
Critics say that it would be better to buy fewer
clothes instead of buying more and giving them to H&M, and buying more
clothes again, lured by the discount coupon.
I think it’s good that it’s possible to get your old
and used clothes recycled and reused, and getting a discount coupon for giving
the clothes away. I see this as some version of flea markets: in this case, you
can get rid of all the clothes you don’t need anymore, and get something back …unlike
in flea markets where it’s not up to you what you’ll get rid of. So for me,
who’s been unsuccessfully trying to sell a huge pile of old clothes, this is a
great piece of news! Now I can just walk in an H&M store with bags of
clothes and get 15 percent discount coupons instead of desperately trying to
get the clothes sold. On top of all this, H&M happens to be one of my
favorite clothing stores, so I can kill two birds with one stone: I can get rid
of the clothes that are filling my closet for nothing, and get a discount
coupon to a store I like.
That is a great idea! More stores should do the same. It really kills two birds with one store, like you said. It seems to be super easy and you only need to go to one place to do the both things. Smart move from H&M.
ReplyDeleteI like a lot this idea and I think that many others like too. H&M is a very popular store so I believe that many people will bring their old clothes there. This is an easy way to get rid of old clothes and it's nice that you can get a little benefit back. I will make use of this system.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good topic and I also like a lot this idea. I didn't knew about this earlier, so it was good that I read this. This really is smart move from H&M because they have had big scandals about child labor and models bodies editings so this probably is smartest thing that H&M has ever done. Now can get easily rid of the old clothes.
ReplyDelete