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H&M Wants You To Hand Over Your Old Clothes For World Recycle Week

H&M Wants You To Hand Over Your Old Clothes (In Return For $$$)

How many garbage bags full of old clothes could you gather if you cleaned out your wardrobe? We mean really cleaned out your closet, with reckless abandon?

If you need some inspiration to do a bit of, er, Autumn cleaning, let H&M's World Recycle Week initiative be it. The retail giant is aiming to collect 1,000 tonnes of unwanted garments from customers worldwide in its more than 3,600 stores.

Why? It wants to 'close the loop in fashion', recycling unwanted clothes to create recycled textile fibres for new products.

Musician M.I.A. is the celeb face behind the campaign, filming a new music video highlighting the environmental impact of clothes going into landfills around the world. The video debuted on Monday.

Garment collecting at H&M is pretty simple and can have a surprisingly profound effect. It's not all that well known, but since 2013 customers have been able to take any unwanted and worn out garments and textiles (from any brand and in any condition) to any H&M store. By doing so they ensure less ends up in landfills and, in return, receive vouchers to use in store (you receive one voucher for 15 percent off for each bag you hand in, with a maximum of two vouchers per day).

Since 2013, the company has collected more than 25,000 tonnes of clothing. Pretty impressive, huh? Two years ago the brand introduced its first new garments into store that used the recycled textile fibres.

Alongside the video by M.I.A., bloggers will film 'rehaul' clips, showing the pieces they’re recycling through the project -- the point being to show the opposite of a 'haul' where you upload a video showing items recently purchased, which are popular on YouTube.

The ultimate goal is to have zero garments going to landfill, as well as saving on natural resources. To put it into perspective, by recycling just one t-shirt 2100 litres of water can be saved -- roughly the amount used to manufacture one from start to finish.

Cleaning out old stuff in return for $$$ off your next shopping trips sounds pretty good, no?

World Recycle Week takes place from April 18 until April 24.

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