H&M
As a leading fast fashion high street retailer has continued to set a new standard for other fashion companies. After a hit of bad publicity due to three catastrophic incidents in 2010, 2011, and 2013 this caused
H&M to think about their ethics and sustainability, aims and objectives (Clean Clothes Campaign,
2015.)
Throughout the year of 2014 H&M continued to increase their recycling systems into stores, allowing
common recyclable waste like cardboard, plastic and paper to be successfully recycles, with the levels
increasing from 56% in 2013, to 58% in 2014 (H&M, 2014.) This is only a minor increase, but any positive
figure is better than a negative. By H&M tracking th eir successfulness over the years it shows how the
company has set about emphasising the fact that their procedures are developing and getting better on a
yearly basis.
The £5 off reward when customers bought a bag of unwanted clothing into the store, to recycle with
them, with an impressive figure of 14,000 tonnes collected from the company (Sowray, 2015.) ‘Close the
loop’ came into stores September 2015. A new line created by H&M whereby unwanted clothes are recycled creating new denim collection, with 20 per cent recycled cotton from collected clothes, and 80 per
cent created from organic cotton. This is a huge development in terms of their sustainable aspects of the
company, but with the continuous ethical issues re-emerging after action had ‘allegedly’ been put into
action, can H&M really be trusted. How true are their actions and is this just another publicity stunt to
keep their customers returning.
Figure 23
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