Updated: 1 May 2025
H&M claims that clothes placed in its in-store recycling bins are processed in an environmentally friendly and responsible way, but an investigation by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet found that this claim did not reflect reality.
The newspaper attached AirTags to 10 garments and tracked where they went. None of the garments stayed in Sweden; they were shipped to countries such as Germany, Benin, India, Romania, and Ghana.
The findings were shocking: one garment was sent to Benin, a country where mountains of used clothing have piled up as waste. Another garment ended up in Panipat, India, a city grappling with textile waste and child labor.
That was not all: the 10 garments traveled almost one and a half times around the world, transported by vehicles powered by fossil fuels. It emerged that H&M turns garments that could be recycled into fibers, and had even processed a grey sweater that had barely been worn in this way.
The scandal shows that used clothing is causing an environmental disaster in Ghana and also reveals H&M's contribution to the situation. According to customs data, H&M's German partners sent at least one million garments to Ghana in 2023 alone, making them among the five countries that sent the most textiles to the country.
For example, although Ghana bans imports of second-hand clothing that threaten the local textile industry and pose health risks, some garments from H&M's recycling bins entered the country.
Through a spokesperson, H&M said it opposes clothing waste and continues its work to create a more circular fashion industry. However, the newspaper's investigation shows that H&M's recycling bins are merely a marketing strategy and that they actually harm the environment.
Prof. Dr. Levent Kurnaz, a writer for Yeşil Gazete, said the recycling H&M claims to do covers only hundreds of garments and called sending them to third-world countries fraud.
Sources
https://www2.hm.com/en_gb/sustainability-at-hm/our-work/close-the-loop.html