H&M Sells Customers’ Old Clothes Back To Them As Recycled Denim

A kids’ jacket that uses 20% recycled denim at H&M. Regrettably, they are not selling the animal ears version in adult sizes. We checked.

A few years ago, H&M was caught destroying unsold clothing to discourage dumpster-divers, enraging people, especially if they were already opponents of fast fashion. A few years later, the Swedish chain did the exact opposite: they offered customers a discount for their old clothes, and promised to recycle those old duds into rags, insulation, or even new clothes. Now, three years later, you can theoretically buy your old clothes back from H&M in denim form.

H&M is calling the new collection “Close the Loop,” but the loop isn’t perfectly closed. The denim consists of about 20% recycled cotton, which they say came from clothes collected in H&M stores. That’s not a perfect closed loop, but it is 20% more cotton than they were recycling before. The recycled clothing collection consists of 16 pieces for adults and children.

The company reports that they’ve collected 14 million tons of old clothes since 2013. Recycler I:CO sorts through customers’ discarded clothes, determining what can be resold in thrift stores, shredded into rags or insulation, or shredded even further to reclaim the cotton fibers. H&M has promised to increase the amount of recycled fiber used in its clothes in the coming years.

Levi’s also works with the same recycling company, and they’ll give you 20% off for bringing in old clothes, which do not have to be 100% cotton. H&M will give you a 15% off coupon in exchange for a bag of clothes.

The full collection hits stores the first week of September.