In a typically Swedish socially responsible fashion, Hennes & Mauritz has announced a clothing collecting initiative as of February 2013.
   In all its stores in all 48 countries, customers will be able to bring in used garments, with H&M committing to sustainability. Customers will get a voucher in return.
   The company says it will accept items from all brands in any condition, reducing textile waste and overall environmental impact, and saving natural resources.
   ‘Our sustainability efforts are rooted in a dedication to social and environmental responsibility. We want to do good for the environment, which is why we are now offering our customers a convenient solution: to be able to leave their worn out or defective garments with H&M,’ says CEO Karl-Johan Persson.
   The collected clothes are handled by I:Collect, which will reprocess the clothes and make the resources ready for reuse.
   H&M says as much as 95 per cent of disposed clothes could be used again.
   The company says, long-term, it wishes to ‘reduce the environmental impact of garments throughout the life cycle and create a closed loop for textile fibres.’ H&M Conscious Foundation has been set up to support innovation to find ways of closing the loop on textiles.
   Last week, H&M announced an 11-piece men’s capsule range in collaboration of Brick Lane Bikes of East London, to be launched on March 7 in 180 stores worldwide. The range uses more sustainable materials, a development of the Conscious programme.