The H&M foundation and the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparels (HKRITA) have announced the opening of two textile recycling facilities which will put HKRITA’s hydrothermal method for recycling cotton and polyester blends to use.
Blends are the most used type of textile in the world but are still non-recyclable.
The textile facilities will be located at the Novetex Factory in Tai Po Industrial Estate, Hong Kong.
The main purpose of the initiative is to invite fashion companies and their stakeholders to see, test and implement the technology at the facilities. As a non-profit organization the H&M Foundation works to drive change for the global fashion industry and HKRITA licenses the results widely so as to make it available to all and enable the impact.
Erik Bang, Innovation Lead, H&M Foundation, said, “This is a significant step towards a new fashion industry that functions within the planetary boundaries. If we scale up and make this technology available to the industry, we can surely reduce the dependency on the limited natural resources to address the needs of growing global population.”
The facilities will also have a miniaturized garment to garment recycling system which will be open to the public. The shoppers can also buy the recycled garment after visiting the facility. Erica also added that since seeing is believing, when customers see with their own eyes the recycled garment, they also start believing in recycling.
Edwin Keh, Chief Executive Officer, HKRITA, said, “After successfully developing revolutionary recycling technologies, we have devoted sustained effort to put them into practice. Our recycling systems represent the industry’s well-applied innovation efforts. These not only revive a decade-old major industry, but also do it in the most sustainable manner for the benefit of our community and as a responsible global citizen.”
H&M foundation is set to fund 5.8 million euro (approximately US $ 7 million) in the project for the next four years. HKRITA and H&M foundation are associated with each other since 2016 and H&M plans to spend a total of 30 million euros in joint textile recycling projects between 2016 and 2020.
