The goal is to reduce waste by using the recovered fibers to make brand new clothes, the clothing giant explains

Apr 1, 2015 15:15 GMT  ·  By

This past Tuesday, March 31, H&M and Kering, owner of Balenciaga, Gucci, Puma and several other luxury labels, announced plans to team up with London-based start-up Worn Again to turn old socks and shirts into brand new ones. 

That's right, clothing giants H&M and Kering have their mind set on recycling clothes. The reason they teamed up with Worn Again is that they need a technology developed by the London-based start-up to see their dream come true.

What exactly do they want to do with our old clothes?

In a statement detailing their plans, H&M and Kering explain that Worn Again's innovative recycling technology should allow them to separate both individual fibers and dyes from old clothes.

Having recovered the fibers in the outfits people no longer wear, the companies hope to use them to make brand new clothes. Yup, they basically want to take our old clothes from us and then sell them back to us, albeit in another form.

“Worn Again’s textile-to-textile chemical recycling technology is the first of its kind able to separate and extract polyester and cotton from old or end-of-use clothing and textiles,” H&M and Kering explain the technology they wish to test.

“Once separated, the aim is for this unique process to enable the ‘recaptured’ polyester and cellulose from cotton to be spun into new fabric creating a ‘circular resource model’ for textiles,” the clothing giants go on to detail.

It is understood that not all the brands owned by Kering will be involved in this initiative. On the contrary, the company is to be involved in testing Worn Again's technology only via leading sportswear brand PUMA.

Why bother to recover fibers from old clothes?

According to a recent report, about 65 million tonnes of polyesters filament and cotton fiber were produced on a global scale in 2014. By 2020, the figure will likely rise to an impressive 90 million tonnes. Should this happen, the planet's natural resources will be dealt a heavy blow.

Both Kering and H&M hope that, by supporting Worn Again's recycling technologically and getting into the business of making new clothes from old ones, they will help reduce the ecological footprint of the fashion industry.