Recycling in the fashion industry, beyond the banal resale of clothes, lags a bit behind the recycling of materials in other areas. And above all – in terms of technology.
But one of Europe’s largest and most popular labels, H&M, set out to solve this problem and created the world’s first combined machine for recycling clothes.
Looop is a machine that separates old clothes into their constituent fibers, cleans and presses them, and weaves them into yarn before creating a completely new one.
Looop was developed by the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) in collaboration with the non-profit H&M Foundation.
Looop does not use any additional dyes or water, relying instead solely on the color of the recycled clothing. The process takes place on an assembly line of eight machines.
One of the advantages of the complex is its relative compactness. All the equipment fits into a standard 40-foot container. This means it can be easily shipped anywhere in the world.
Currently, the new Looop clothing recycling complex is located at Drottninggatan 56 in Stockholm, Sweden, but the technology is available to any fashion brands that want to use it.