H&M has made a kidswear collection made from recycled ocean plastic

Trine Jensen-Burke

H&M kidswear collection made from ocean plastic

This is so amazing.

Ocean plastic is a major problem all across the world. Every year, thousands of tons of plastic end up in our oceans and rivers, where it causes pollution, kills fish and destroys marine life.

But what if we could attempt to get rid of some of it by putting it to good use?

Right now, H&M has created a collection of comfy kidswear – made from recycled PET bottles.

“Plastic is messy, but we’ll keep cleaning up.”

In a press release, the Swedish highstreet fashion giant explains their latest project:

“Indonesia is on a mission to tackle its huge plastic pollution problem. By 2025, it aims to cut marine plastic waste by 70%. We also want to tackle our own plastic problem: finding alternatives to conventional polyester (a kind of plastic) to make more sustainable, affordable kidswear.

Our bottle2fashion initiative with Danone AQUA collects PET bottles on the islands of Indonesia and recycles them into polyester fibres. We blend them with more sustainable cotton to make these everyday casuals.

This season, bottle2fashion will collect and recycle around 3.5 million PET bottles. Looking ahead, we want to do even more.”

Why recycled polyester?

“Recycled polyester is an artificial fibre made from oil-based waste such as old PET bottles. We blend it with organic and recycled cotton to achieve a soft, fleecy quality (like these hoodies).

It’s better to use materials that already exist — waste that would otherwise end up in landfills and oceans — than sourcing more conventional polyester.

Plus, it takes less energy and generates less CO2 emissions to convert PET into recycled polyester than in the case of conventional polyester.”

What’s next?

“After the kids outgrow the clothes, you can give them a new life by passing them on to others or bringing them to our Garment Collecting boxes in store. You can also wash polyester garments in microfibre-catching bags to help reduce microfibre shedding.”

Here are some of our favourites from the new collection:

Tie-details sweatshirt