Last week, fast-fashion brands that manufacture in Bangladesh—including H&M and Target—joined forces to create an ambitious clothing recycling system in the country. The initiative was spearheaded by the Global Fashion Agenda, a Danish sustainability nonprofit, and what sets it apart from other recycling efforts is that it brings together many players in the fashion industry, from brands to enormous factories to companies building cutting-edge recycling technology. Collectively, these organizations want to make Bangladesh a leader in apparel recycling. And it makes sense: The country is the second-largest clothing producer in the world and has particular expertise in fast fashion.

The production of new clothes is destroying the planet. Today, more than 100 billion garments are churned out annually, and less than 1% of material used to manufacture these clothes is made from recycled clothing. The process of extracting raw materials—like oil for synthetic fibers or cotton—then shipping them around the world, is extremely carbon intensive, and it is one reason that the fashion industry is responsible for between 4% and 10% of the world’s carbon emissions, depending on how you calculate. Researchers have found that using recycled fabric cuts down on the carbon footprint of a garment (though the exact reduction depends on the specific method of recycling).

Bangladesh is a prime spot for a mass-recycling experiment. It is ground zero for fast-fashion manufacturing thanks to its low-wage workforce. This means that a lot of cheap, low-quality clothes pass through its borders, leading to a lot of waste. (This cheap labor often comes at a high human cost: Many Bangladeshi workers face terrible working conditions; in 2013, the Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed, killing 1,134 workers.) Factories are full of  clothes that were thrown out because of a manufacturing error and bolts of fabric that were ordered but never used—plus all the scraps leftover from regular production. COVID-19 has only exacerbated this problem. The pandemic has hit the fashion industry hard and many brands have cancelled orders. According to the Global Fashion Agenda, wasted fabrics and finishes are piling up at factories. The goal of the recycling project is to capture these and other waste materials, then transform them back into new clothes.

Reducing the carbon footprint of the fashion industry is, of course, good for the planet as a whole, but it is also good for Bangladesh specifically. As the Hindustan Times points out, it is a low-lying nation that will be hard hit by climate change, especially rising sea levels and flooding.

There are now many exciting new technologies on the market that are focused on turning old textiles into new textiles, including breaking down fibers into polymers then reconstituting them. The Bangladesh project enlists 13 tech companies, including Lenzing (which creates the widely used Tencel fabric from wood pulp) and Renewcell (funded in part by H&M Group). While many of these recyclers partner with individual brands on small projects, getting large manufacturing facilities on board could help them scale up quickly.”