The climate threatThe problems in the clothing industry

Market for second hand clothes in Kenya. KHALLIL SENOSI / Ap  

 

The climate threatThe problems in the clothing industry 

H&M review arouses reactions: "Sham"  

 

Aftonbladet's review of H&M, which shows how the clothing giant's "recycled" garments are dumped in Benin and Ghana, arouses reactions. DN's Sandra Stiskalo writes in a cultural text that the review will be a reminder of "the apparent durability of the clothing giants".  

 

The clothing giants should pay for the damage they cause until the business model with overproduction is replaced by another, she writes. "And the rest of us, we just have to stop shopping so preoccupied."  

 

Aftonbladet's lead writer Fanny Jönsson writes that the garments that H&M promised would be something new are instead poisoning the air and sea on the other side of the planet. She also adds that none of what we throw away goes away, "it just ends up somewhere else". 

 

EU Member of Parliament Alice Bah Kuhnke (MP) writes on Instagram that as long as we don't have laws that put a stop to it, many companies will "continue to make mistakes".  

 

Archive image. Second hand in Nigeria, 2012. TT 

 

"Recycled" H&M clothes are dumped in poor countries  

 

A large part of the H&M clothes that are recycled by customers in stores are sent to poor countries where they are dumped or burned, reports Aftonbladet. The magazine has attached tracking tags to ten second-hand garments in good condition and then left them in the chain's recycling bins to follow its path. 

 

Instead of being sold on the second-hand market in Sweden as promised, all clothes are sent abroad and sold to middlemen. Some of the garments are sent to second-hand shops in Romania, some are ground down in Germany, while others end up in giant markets in Africa.  

 

When the reporters visit Benin in search of a jacket, they describe how unsellable garments are dumped and overfilled containers are set on fire.  

 

H&M admits that there are "challenges" linked to the chain's clothing recycling, but says it is categorically against clothes becoming waste.