Clothing Recycling at H&M

(Screenshot of my discount vouchers in the H&M

 app)

I’m on my summer break from work and, in what is rapidly becoming a summer tradition, I have been sorting through old clothes. 

I don’t like throwing out clothes and in my own wardrobe, I tend to err on the side of wearing things out thoroughly (and let’s not talk about my husband and how old some of his garments are…). With two children under ten, though, we tend to go through clothes whether we want to or not. 

When the clothes are still in good shape, there are a few options to choose from. When they’re not, though, because they’re stained or just plain worn out, I tend to go with H&M’s clothing recycle program. I think the key thing is that it’s just easy. You take the clothes to your nearest H&M, put them in the recycling bin they have there, and voila. Done. You will need to take them out of the bag and probably even put them in the clothing bin yourself (under the watchful eye of a store staff member). They don’t want the bag your brought your stuff in, so you can take that home with you. 

Then, you can get a 500 yen voucher to use on your next purchase at H&M when you spend 3000 yen or more. The coupon is valid for one year, and you will need to have H&M app installed on your phone to receive it. While I haven’t tried this, I get the impression that they will accept your clothes even if you don’t have the app; you just won’t be able to receive the discount coupon.

Is this a gimmick? Probably. While probably more than half of my 500 yen recycling coupons go unused, I did turn around after dropping off my stuff and actually buy some new clothes yesterday (see: growing children). Is it greenwashing a fast fashion brand? Oh yes. 

But I like to think that there’s a chance that my stuff can be recycled this way, and just throwing it out certainly doesn’t allow that.