H&M In-Store Recycling Machine Turns Old Clothes into New Threads—A World First

Fashion recycling, beyond simply reselling clothing, lags a bit behind other material recycling processes in terms of technology. But one of Europe’s biggest and most popular brands, H&M, is establishing the world’s first in-store combination old clothes shredder and shredder to tackle the problem head-on.

Looop, the machine that shreds old garments into component fibers, cleans them and presses them into longer fibers and weaves them into yarn before creating new garments, was developed by the Hong Kong Institute of Textile and Apparel Research (HKRITA) in collaboration with the non-profit H&M Foundation.

“To fight climate change, we have to change fashion”, read a statement on the fashion retailer’s website.

In fact, the analysis by the US Environmental Protection Agency. suggests that fashion waste can account for up to 5% of landfill capacity, while also producing 10% of the country’s total methane emissions.

Looop does not use additional dyes or water, but relies solely on the color of the scrapped clothing. The process is completed on an assembly line of eight machines that are sold as a 40-foot-long piece of furniture that can be easily shipped worldwide in a standard shipping container.

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Looop is installed at Drottninggatan 56 in Stockholm, Sweden, but the technology is available to any fashion brand that wishes to employ it.

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“It is a reminder to treat all clothing as a resource. Nothing is too tattered or torn to be recycled, and no clothing should end up in the trash. “

(CLOCK the video of Looop in action below).

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