H&M Encourages South Africans To Recycle Old Clothing with ‘Bring It’ Campaign

Discarded, unwanted clothing is a global phenomenon that is clogging up landfills and destroying our planet. In an attempt to help combat this unnecessary waste, H&M formed the Garment Collecting initiative where customers can drop off any unwanted clothes from any brand at H&M stores for recycling. First launched worldwide in 2013, the initiative has collected and recycled 40 000 tonnes of unwanted clothing. Now they want to increase this to 25 000 tonnes per year by 2050 and so they’ve launched a new global campaign called Bring It to encourage shoppers to hand in all their old, unwanted clothes.

Launched with an eye-opening film, the Bring It campaign aims to raise awareness about the importance of clothing recycling and offer customers an easy way to hand in unwanted clothes via H&M. Directed by Crystal Moselle, the film tells the story of the journey unwanted clothes go on after being dropped off in store for recycling.

Recycling clothes not only helps preserve our planet, it also increases the lifespan of a garment for future use where the recycled items are reused as fresh textile fibres for new products, meaning that zero garments end up in landfills. This is an important step in closing the loop for the fashion industry and the concept led H&M to its first Close The Loop collection made from sustainable materials. It forms part of the global fashion giant’s commitment to a sustainable fashion future.

Plus, for every grocery sized bag you drop off at H&M stores you’ll get a 10% off voucher to shop for something new! Recycling has never been this rewarding. The collected garments will be sorted into more than 350 different categories with clothes still in a good condition being distributed worldwide as second-hand goods.