H&M Turns Leftover Clothing Into A New Product Line

Swedish clothing supplier H&M – stung by a PR fiasco when word got out that it had trashed unsold clothing in New York City – has developed a new line called Waste, assembled from unsold pieces from its Lanvin collection. The initiative is innovative because millions of tons of leftover textiles are either discarded in landfills or end up in second-hand stores. A movement toward recycling, however, is gaining momentum. Speedo, for example, recently turned over 18,000 swimsuits to a designer who specializes in textile recycling. Orsola de Castro turned the LZR Racer suits, banned by the competitive swimming governing body Fina, into cocktail dresses after figuring out how to sidestep the Speedo logo problem. "In terms of sustainability there is nothing more advanced than this," de Castrol said.