The textile sector is under the spotlight of regulators, environmental NGOs and, increasingly, customers. This industry creates more than 100,000 articles of clothing per year, which means that each inhabitant of the planet, and there are more than 7,000 million, receives 13 new garments per year. An exorbitant figure that raises the numbers of waste generated by brands that work in the world of fashion, but the percentages of recycling this waste do not grow as much. In Spain, almost one million tons of textile waste is thrown away every year, and only 10-12% is reused or recycled. The rest of the waste ends up incinerated or piled up in landfills or even in remote places like the Atacama Desert in Chile. Fashion firms have set to work to increase these percentage figures, looking for all possible solutions: “We want to give access to a more responsible fashion,” responds Julie-Marlène Pelissier, H&M’s director of sustainability for southern Europe. One of her actions is to change the way of accessing clothes and this is how they have tried it in her renovated store in Barcelona. Up to Barcelona and for the first time in Spain, the fashion firm incorporates the ‘Pre-Loved’ section with an offer of second-hand clothing and accessories.
-When did you realize that sustainability should be an important point in your business?
Actually we haven’t. In 2022, we celebrate our 75th birthday and this means that we have 75 years of experience in the fashion industry, including the issues and challenges associated with sustainable development. We work with all the stakeholders we work with: unions, governments and suppliers. Sustainability is at the center of our strategy, it is the heart of our business. We have been publishing sustainable development reports for 20 years and for two years, the annual report and the sustainability report are the same. Since its creation, H&M’s mission has been to democratize fashion. And today, that means giving everyone access to more responsible fashion.
-And how is sustainability worked in this sector?
There are challenges, but this experience, as I just said, has taught us one key thing and that is that success lies in working together with all the stakeholders. So we are convinced of our role, that we want to use our size to have a positive impact, and that this is how we will create sustainable value. We want to lead the change towards a true fashion industry, more responsible and more circular.
More responsible, more circular… The sector has all eyes on it due to its environmental footprint, how can it be reduced?
It’s a great question. We have an impact on people, communities and their environment, so our goal is to be 100% circular. And why not? We have realized that by adopting a circular ecosystem we can reduce our dependence on natural resources and, thus, our impact on the climate and on nature. Our goal is to have 100% recycled materials and more sustainably sourced materials by 2030, we know that these have less impact than conventional ones. We also have to build circular strategies with circular supply chains with a view to repairing, reusing or recycling them, and also using production processes that have less impact. By this, I mean dyeing and printing, for example. We are also developing strategies so that our clients see and use fashion in a more conscious way and for this reason we have opened a store in Barcelona where, for the first time, we encourage our clients to try and make informed decisions. We are working on this and that is why in Antwerp (Belgium) we are going to open a rental service, because we want to offer our clients ways to have less impact on the planet. In Paris, for example, we have a store that offers a repair service to help our customers reuse their clothes. All this is a range of offers and proposals for our clients to participate in our conviction. Our mission is to democratize fashion by giving everyone access to more responsible fashion.
“Last year we collected 15,000 tons of clothing in our stores”
-Are these services going to be transferred to Spain?
We’re open to different things, but I can’t tell you if it’s going to double down. We have chosen Barcelona as the perfect place to launch this second-hand clothing offer, because it made sense. Will rental services arrive in Spain? I can’t really answer that.
-Another point is circularity… that second life of clothes. Do people bring their clothes to the store? How many tons did they collect?
Last year’s figure, at the group level worldwide, was 15,000 tons of clothing. We are part of a circular ecosystem, because we allow people to actually use their repaired and reused clothing. There are more possibilities than throwing it away, even if it is damaged it can be reused. They are not waste, but they are going to be resources for us to use again and there for them.
-If those clothes cannot be reused, what do they do with them?
These garments are processed by our partner Remondis. We collect these garments and deliver them to you, because it has factories specialized in sorting. A process in which it is determined where they will go and 60% of them end up in reuse, that is, wholesale markets where they are given a second life, here we are talking about clothing that has been identified as quality. Then we have between 30% and 40% that is destined for recycling, that is, it will be used to manufacture insulating materials. In this section, the clothes are crushed and reused as raw material. It is a part that we hope to be able to recycle more and convert it into raw materials for reuse, but it is still a technological challenge in which we are investing a lot of money.
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