H&M launched their Garment Collecting Initiative in 2013, accepting used clothing from any brand, in any condition, in exchange for store vouchers. They’ve framed it as “closing the loop.” A Norwegian Consumer Authority investigation into H&M’s sustainability claims found significant problems with how those claims were substantiated. The two facts sit uncomfortably together.
H&M is both the company doing the most visible circular fashion work at mass-market scale and one of the most scrutinized companies for the gap between those claims and actual impact. Understanding what the program actually does, and where the honest limitations are, matters more than either the promotional framing or the dismissive criticism.
What the Garment Collecting Program Actually Does
The Garment Collecting Initiative accepts any textile regardless of brand or condition. Most collected garments are not recycled into new textiles. H&M has been relatively transparent about this: items are sorted and sent to resale markets, donated to charities, or used as raw material for industrial applications (insulation, padding, wiping cloths) before recycling is considered.
Textile-to-textile recycling is technically difficult at scale (blended fibers can’t be mechanically separated), which is why H&M has invested in Infinited Fiber Company, a Finnish biotech startup using a chemical process to dissolve cellulosic fibers from textile waste back into a pulp for new fiber production. This investment is the real circular bet: if the chemistry works at commercial scale, the collection infrastructure already exists.
The Green Machine, developed with HKRITA, processes 1.5 tons of textile waste daily and can handle blended fibers, a demonstration at industrial scale that the technical problem is solvable.
Treadler and the Supplier Network Play
Treadler is H&M Group’s business-to-business service that makes their supply chain infrastructure available to other fashion companies: essentially licensing access to their sourcing relationships, quality standards, and circular business model expertise.
This is the most interesting strategic move in H&M’s sustainability portfolio. If H&M’s circular infrastructure can help other fashion companies transition toward more sustainable models, the environmental impact multiplies significantly beyond H&M’s own production. The Conscious Collection and internal programs serve H&M’s brand. Treadler serves the industry.
H&M faces an unavoidable structural tension: they are a fast fashion company whose core business model depends on high volume and rapid turnover. Circular initiatives at the margins of that model reduce its harm but don’t resolve the underlying contradiction. The honest question is whether the investments in circular technology and infrastructure will eventually change the core model — or remain perpetually marginal to it.
The Honest Assessment
H&M’s circular investments are real: the Infinited Fiber partnership, the Green Machine development, the Treadler supply chain service, the repair and resale expansion under COS Resell and Weekday. The Conscious Collection sourcing does use recycled and sustainably certified materials.
The problems are also real: the Norwegian Consumer Authority finding that sustainability claims lacked adequate substantiation, the absence of Scope 3 supply chain emissions reporting that would provide full transparency, and the fact that H&M’s overall production volume continues growing while circular programs remain a small fraction of total output.
This isn’t unique to H&M: it’s the challenge facing every mass-market fashion company trying to move toward circularity. The honest framing is: these are serious investments in technologies and systems that could eventually change the model, deployed by a company whose current business model still produces significant environmental harm.
P.S. H&M’s annual sustainability report includes data on their garment collecting volumes and sorting outcomes. Worth reading before accepting either the promotional framing or the critical framing as the complete picture.