Swedish fashion brand H&M has teamed up with Indonesian drinking water brand Danone Aqua once more for Bottle2fashion, an initiative to turn recycled plastic into kidswear.
According to the fashion label, this year’s children’s wear collection was made from 663,860 PET bottles.
“We play a huge part, and we want to lead the change towards a more sustainable fashion future,” said Karin Brink, sustainability manager, H&M kidswear. “We can, and we have to create these collaborations to accelerate the transformation that is crucial for our industry – together with other brands, our suppliers and our customers.”
The new sustainable kidswear collection includes cozy hoodies, trousers, joggers, t-shirts, long-sleeve tops, and socks, using an energetic colour palette of lavender, pale yellow, black, grey, and lime green. In addition, it features sports-inspired details, colour-blocking, and tie-dye prints.
Launched in 2017, Bottle2fashion collects PET bottles across the islands of Indonesia, sorted and cleaned, before being shredded into flakes to produce recycled polyester fibres. In addition, the project also supports the Indonesian government’s initiative to reduce marine waste by 70 per cent and plastic waste to zero by 2040.
Each year, Indonesia generates nearly 7.8 million tons of plastic, with 4.9 million tons left uncollected, disposed of in open dumpsites, or leaked from mismanaged landfills.
Jeffri Ricardo, packaging circularity senior manager at Danone, shares that the company launched #BijakBerplastik (being wise about plastic) to help tackle the plastic waste issue; however, the task required multiple stakeholders and collaboration.
“With the bottle2fashion project, we’re showing a more sustainable future is possible, not only from bottle to bottle but bottle to fashion, to be part of the solution,” said Ricardo.
Bottle2fashion has collected and recycled over 7.5 million PET bottles this year, double the amount from last year at 3.5 million.
The sustainable kidswear collection will be available in stores and online in January 2022.
