Dive Brief:

• Swedish apparel retailer H&M is partnering with British hip hop star Mathangi 'Maya' Arulpragasam, better known as MIA, for its World Recycle Week initiative. 

• MIA, who has also worked as a clothing designer and is known for her fashion style and environmental activism, wrote the song "Rewear It" for the project, and worked with choreographer Aaron Sillis to produce a video for the song.

• H&M aims to collect 1,000 tons of unwanted or worn out garments across its more than 3,600 global stores during the World Recycle Week campaign, which runs April 18-24.

Dive Insight:

H&M has been working hard to repair its image since 2010, when consumers learned of its policy to destroy and discard unsold clothing, sometimes throwing it away on the streets outside stores. H&M responded by launching its “Garment Collecting Initiative” in 2013 and has also rolled out its “Close the Loop” collection made with fabric using recycled fibers, created in partnership with Swiss company I:CO, which collects used and unsold clothing and turns it into usable textiles to make yet more clothing or for stuffing material in industries as diverse as construction, automotive manufacturing and toys.

H&M in a statement characterized the World Recycle Week campaign as “one of the most extensive environmental projects that H&M has undertaken.” U.S. customers who turn in their unwanted clothing will receive a 30% off coupon during the campaign period.

While apparel recycling garners positive attention from media and consumers alike, the recycling process isn’t all that straightforward. To get cotton and other material suitable for textile that can be made into clothing, the original textile must be of a certain quality. So participating brands have to be thinking about recycling even before the potentially recycled apparel is ever made, much less sold, worn and turned back in.

But the issue has become increasingly important to shoppers worldwide, especially younger consumers, based on several studies. According to the 2015 Nielsen Global Corporate Sustainability Report, for example, 66% of global consumers say they’re willing to pay more for sustainable brands—up 55% from 2014—and 73% of global millennials are willing to pay extra for sustainable sfferings, up from 50% in 2014.

In addition, sales of consumer goods from brands with a "demonstrated commitment to sustainability" grew more than 4% globally, while those without grew less than 1%, Nielsen noted.