The Swedish power plant burns discarded H&M as renewable fuel instead of coal. And the last coal delivery for the power plant would be arrived on Tuesday.–– Bloomburg Technology

Initially, I was really surprised about this news. Previously when somebody talks about the ways to deal with old clothes, I would think about donating them to poor people or, as we discussed during the class, recycling the clothes for new design or taking the clothes to the repair point like what Patagonia does. Before seeing this news, I had never thought about burning clothes for electricity, as they are recyclable, reusable and more valuable than other kind of rubbish.

However, on the other hand, this is also a good idea. As the clothes of H&M and other fast-fashion brands are largely produced, and not all of the clothes are recycled or being reused as secondhand clothing. In America, about 10.5 million tons of clothing is being sent to landfills every year, which is one of the poorest recycling rates of any reusable material. Although burning the clothes is also not a really recyclable way, but at least it provides a new and wild idea for people to deal with the old stuff.

On the other hand, of course the burning solution is not applicable to every discarded stuff, some of the materials contain toxic parts which would be even more damageable to the environment than being thrown somewhere. And fortunately the stuffs make sure that the clothes gathered from H&M are all safe to use (burn), and therefore it would not damage the environment when producing power.

Moreover, this power station in Vasteras also has a deal with nearby cities and even overseas to receive rubbish to fuel its main boiler. I think it would be also a good idea for the power plants all over the world, especially Asian countries, as most of the cloth factories are located in Asia as well as the largest proportion of the population in the world is in Asia. As the fossil fuel is non-renewable, it is better to burn the proper waste in a more economical and sustainable way.