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H&M’s kidswear combats plastic in oceans

Words by Smiley Team

We’ve all seen the photos of plastic clogging up oceans and harming wildlife. Wouldn’t it be better if we protect the planet for future generations, rather than harming it? Serving young people by doing just this, H&M has joined forces with a bottled water company, Danone AQUA, to create an eye-catching children’s collection made from recycled plastics.

The clothing range contributes to a project, bottle2fashion, which the two companies started in September 2020 as a response to ocean pollution and to create more jobs. 

For this initiative, locals amassed more than 3.5 million polyester-based plastic bottles across Indonesian islands, cleaned them and shredded them into small pieces. 

In doing so H&M and Danone AQUA hope to tackle the country’s escalating plastic problem, cutting marine plastic waste by 70 per cent by 2025.



Circular clothing

The clothing chain uses plastic collected in Indonesia to make polyester fabric fibres, mixing them with organic and recycled cotton to create colourful hoodies, jogger pants, and t-shirts for their bottle2fashion collection.

Leading the project on H&M’s side, Nellie Lindeborg, their assortment sustainability responsible said: “Helping to keep beaches and oceans clean, bottle2fashion is another exciting step forward for a more circular and collaborative approach at H&M.” 

Lindeborg explained: “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 be brought back to us through our garment collection initiative so they can be recycled once again.”

Launched at the end of December 2020, the clothing collection will be available online and in stores as soon as they reopen.



A fashion inspiration

By buying recycled clothing, parents can also help educate younger generations about the environment. H&M’s head of kidswear design, Sofia Löfstedt said: “I always love to see what kids come up with and I hope they will also learn about the bottle2fashion project along the way.”

Other clothing companies can follow H&M’s example by partnering with companies in the countries most impacted by plastic waste and transforming a mounting problem into a solution.

This article aligns with the following UN SDGs

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