The brand Monki launched on November 23 its first collection using textiles recycled from blended materials, while Looop turns old clothes into new ones, in an H&M store in Stockholm, since October 12.

By Ludmilla Intravaia

While the Covid-19 crisis has further reinforced the desire of the consumer to give meaning to his purchases by consuming responsibly, especially among 38% of so-called “committed” millennials, according to the Procos/Etienne Thil 2020 study unveiled on October 15, brands redouble their efforts to meet consumer expectations, by acting in favor of the environment.

For example, on November 23, the brand dedicated to millennials from the H&M group, Monki, announced the launch of a collection using textile fibers from a recycling machine called the Green Machine. Composed for the moment of a grey tracksuit set featuring the statement, respect your mother (nature), embroidered on the hoodie and trackpants, the line will be enlarged from autumn 2021, specifies the brand press release.

The Green Machine is one of two recycling machines, result of the collaboration that started in 2016.between the H&M Foundation, promoting sustainable innovation and the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA).

Created on a small scale in 2018 in Hong Kong, with the support of a team of retired Japanese engineers called back to work for the occasion, the Green Machine is now operational on an industrial scale, in Indonesia, at the manufacturer Kahatex which can process, without loss of quality, in a closed circuit, up to 1.5 tonnes of textile per day (below, respectively, polyester fibers and cellulose powder, from the Green Machine © H&M Foundation). Images below : ©H&M Foundation.

The Green Machine uses innovative hydrothermal technology to recycle, on a large scale, blended textiles made from cotton and polyester. Blended textiles are commonly used in fashion for reasons of comfort, performance and cost. But they are much more difficult to recycle than cotton or wool taken separately, for example. That’s why these blended-textile products “end up in landfills and incinerators", observes the press release from HKRITA, explaining how the Green Machine works: “The hydrothermal separation system makes recycling of blended materials feasible by selectively decomposing cotton into cellulose powders, thereby enabling the separation of the polyester fibres from the blends. The separated fibres are ready for spinning and manufacturing into new fashion items, as in the case of Monki. The whole process uses only heat, water and citric acid, a naturally occurring chemical found in lemon juice.”

Already on October 12, H&M announced that it had installed the Looop recycling machine in its store at 56 Drottninggatan, in Stockholm. Also resulting from the collaboration between HKRITA and the H&M Foundation, Looop transforms old clothes into new pieces, according to eight steps, listed by the press release of the brand: vaporized with ozone to eliminate microorganisms, the old garment is shredded in small fabric fibers; fibers are filtered to remove dirt and new material is added to strengthen them as mechanical shredding shortens the fibers of the old garment; the mixture of clean fibers is stiffened and woven into a canvas to create fragments that will be combined to make even stronger and thicker fragments; these thick fiber fragments are threaded to create an individual yarn which will be doubled and twisted, in order to increase the strength of the new yarn obtained which, finally, will be knitted into a new garment (images below : ©H&M Foundation).

With Looop, customers can follow the entire process, in real time, in the H&M store where they can directly acquire the new recycled item. This direct-to-customer recycling system called Garment to Garment, may be subject to licenses to help other brands and stores to become circular, which is essential, if we consider the Procos/Etienne Thil 2020 study, according to which “40.5% of millennials believe that the first initiative that brands must implement (…) is the development of a store network more respectful of the environment." Check out the video of how G2G works in this video from HKRITA, below.

* HKRITA website is here. H&M Foundation website is there.