Circular Fashion: H&M Launches Kids Collection Made From Recycled Plastic Collected On Indonesian Beaches

As part of its Bottle2Fashion project, H&M has partnered with Danone Aqua to transform plastic bottle waste from the shores of Indonesia into recycled polyester, the same material used for its latest kidswear collection. The H&M kidswear collection launched on January 14 is made from approximately 3.5 million PET bottles that were transformed into recycled polyester and blended into organic and recycled cotton. Its fibers are then used to make everyday wear for kids like hoodies, joggers, and long-sleeve tops available in blush pink, bright green, yellow and blue colours

According to the Bangkok Post, for this project. the Danone-AQUA bottled-water company collected around 71 tonnes of PET bottles from Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Island) and the Bandung Area.

In a statement, Nellie Lindeborg, Assortment Sustainability Responsible at H&M, said that “Helping to keep beaches and oceans clean, Bottle2Fashion is another exciting step forward for a more circular and collaborative approach at H&M. To give a second life to disposable plastic bottles as recycled polyester is valuable in so many ways — to Indonesia’s environment, economy and social values — but also the world and our customers. And once the kids outgrow the clothes, we encourage the items to be brought back to us through our garment collection initiative so they can be recycled once again.”

We want to give a second life to disposable plastic bottles as recycled polyester is valuable in so many ways — to Indonesia’s environment, economy and social values — but also the world and our customers

Nellie Lindeborg, Assortment Sustainability Responsible at H&M

Ratih Anggraen, Senior Sustainable Packaging Manager at Danone Indonesia elaborated on how much waste they collected and recycled. “Through the bottle2fashion initiative that we’ve conducted alongside H&M, for this season, Danone-AQUA has successfully collected around 71 tons of PET bottles from Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Island) and Bandung Area. This is to show our commitment to prevent plastic from going into the ocean, which is also the manifestation of our #BijakBerplastik movement.”

Just recently, over the period of two days in January, around 90 tonnes of plastic rubbish was collected on the beaches of Kuta, Legian, and Seminyak. The extent of this plastic crisis has led the local government to declare a ‘trash emergency’ back in 2017.

This partnership helps to support the Indonesian government’s initiative against marine pollution. Aside from this, the process of collecting PET bottles, sorting, cleaning, and shredding them into flakes, and then turning the material into recycled polyester fibers has resulted in the increase of job opportunities in the local community.

Commenting on the collection, Sofia Löfstedt, Head of kidswear design at H&M, said, “We wanted to focus on pieces that kids could really be kids in – playful, comfy and confident – so hoodies, joggers and some long-sleeve tops. Though the garments can be coordinated, we put together a wide-ranging colour palette that could be easily mixed and matched. I always love to see what kids come up with and I hope they will also learn about the bottle2fashion project along the way.”

Furthermore, after using the clothes, instead of discarding them, the items can be brought back to H&M and through its garment collection initiative, they will be sent for recycling once again.

Through the bottle2fashion initiative that we’ve conducted alongside H&M, for this season, Danone-AQUA has successfully collected around 71 tons of PET bottles from Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Island) and Bandung Area. This is to show our commitment to prevent plastic from going into the ocean, which is also the manifestation of our #BijakBerplastik movement

Ratih Anggraen, Senior Sustainable Packaging Manager at Danone Indonesia

H&M has been working hard on the sustainability to fight their fast fashion reputation, with a range of measures implemented to advance circularity, such as their partnership with The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA), which led to the development of a ‘Green Machine’ that can help process up to 1.5 tons textile waste. In fact, the fashion giant created its first-ever circular line using recycled polyester from the machine.

In October, H&M added a ‘Looop’ system in one of its stores that allows customers to see how the brand’s container-sized machine recycles their own textiles into something new promoting a closed-loop fashion economy.

It also became the first retailer to use Circulose, a new fibre made using discarded textiles that helps to reduce textile and water waste and stop the use of microplastics in the world of fashion.

Lead image courtesy of H&M