“G2G – A Mini Mill within The Mills” joined 483 projects, products, and services from Nike, Microsoft, Mastercard, Gensler, and others, to be honored in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards for 2019 in the Retail Environments category. Innovation by Design is the competition to honor creative work at the intersection of design, business, and innovation.

The G2G is a mini production line that recycles post-consumer garments into clean and wearable clothes in a standard 40-foot container. The container is installed in a retail shop at The Mills, a revitalized art and cultural complex in Hong Kong.

The container is made of double glazed wall which protects the retail space from the noise generated during the recycling process. The anti-vibration and dust-controlled design also minimizes disturbance to nearby business. Visitors can walk around the container, look inside and view the complete garment-to-garment process. They can even deepen their experience by recycling their own used clothes.

“The Garment to Garment System (G2G) brings recycling to life. Our old clothes can be used as raw material for our new clothes in real time. We are absolutely thrilled with this honour since this is the third major global design and innovation award that this project has won this year. The first and second are the Red Dot Award: Product Design and a Gold Medal of the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva,” said Mr Edwin Keh, Chief Executive Officer of HKRITA.

Set up in a retail shop in The Mills, the G2G is a joint collaboration among The Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA), the H&M Foundation and Novetex Textiles Limited with the support of The Mills.

“What started as a crazy idea by a research institute, a non-profit foundation, a yarn manufacturer and a landmark revitalization project to make something as complex as textile recycling engaging to the public is now an internationally recognized and awarded concept. This is a prime example of what can be achieved when you dare to collaborate and innovate across sectors and borders,” said Erik Bang, Innovation Lead, H&M Foundation.

“Recycling is inseparable from our approach to sustainability, and we’re very proud to have been collaborators in the creation of G2G, which has been a rewarding and meaningful endeavour for us. As a company, we continue to invest in scaling technological innovations to be industrial solutions,” said Ms Ronna Chao, Chairman of Novetex Textiles Limited, which launched The Billie System in July.