Each year, in America alone, 21 billion pounds of clothing, shoes and accessories are added to landfills.
In a way to combat this, H&M have promised a grant of $1 million to whoever can come up with a viable way to recycle clothing and avoid the unnecessary production of clothing waste.
The irony is not lost on the clothing brand, whose ‘fast fashion’ admittedly has contributed to a large amount of clothing waste over the years, with their accessible, cheap fashion line providing an easy excuse for quick turnaround.
The Global Change award, announced this week, will see five winners share the grant which aims to combat “one of the biggest challenges facing today’s fashion industry – to create fashion for a growing population while reducing its impact on the environment,” the company started in a press release.
Whilst H&M have already begun initiatives towards recycling and reducing waste through incentive programs, the company wants to encourage innovation towards effectively “closing the loop.”
A UK based Recycling Association, estimates that up to 95% of the textiles that are landfilled each year, could in fact be recycled.
With the average person throwing out nearly 35kg of textiles a day, the impact that global clothing waste is having on our environment is undeniably caustic.
Would your million dollar plan be?
