H&M Ties Up With Danone Indonesia To Recycle Waste PET Bottles Into Clothing

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H&M Ties Up With Danone Indonesia To Recycle Waste PET Bottles Into Clothing

Swedish fashion retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) has partnered with the Indonesian arm of French consumer giant Danone’s bottled water brand Aqua which is one of its most sustainable suppliers, to turn plastic waste into clothes.

The ‘bottle-to-fashion’ initiative aims to recycle used PET water bottles and turn them into H&M clothing items.

Danone will collect the water bottle waste from consumers and further process them into PET pieces at its collection centres, while Indonesia-based textile supplier PT Kahatex will then buy the PET from Danone and turn it into recycled polyester products for H&M.

“As plastic waste has become a major problem in Indonesian land and marine environment, we see this collaboration project as a contribution from the private sector to help solve this problem,” a spokesperson for H&M said. “This project is also in accordance with United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals and aligned with our vision for 100% circular and renewable production."

H&M has stated that it is the second largest user of recycled polyester in the world and used recycled polyester equivalent to more than 180 million PET bottles in 2016.

The initiative is part of the company's vision of achieving 100% renewable production by only using recycled and sustainable materials in all its products by 2030.