The fashion industry, a major global polluter, has been paying more attention to the environmental and ecological impacts of clothing production. A subset of established brands — some supported by the US group Cotton Incorporated — have pushed programmes where denim and other types of clothing can be turned in at a store, collected, and then sent for recycling. Often, these recycling efforts are supported with promotional offers that allow customers to purchase new items at a discount. This is potentially paradoxical as in this way recycling is used to promote further consumption. This paper interrogates the promotion of recycling programmes from four US brands: American Eagle, H&M, Madewell and The North Face. To do so, this paper uses a textual analysis and deconstruction of the brands’ websites and in-store advertising, as well as a KWIC analysis of Twitter messages. By examining the tangible communication components that support the recycling efforts, this analysis highlights the ‘complicated greenness’ (Hepburn, 2013) within the process as consumer incentives for recycling promote further consumption and often leave consumers confused as to the environmental efficacy of such practices. This paper offers considerations for ways fashion brands might be more impactful in their foray into environmentalism.

中文翻译：

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复杂的绿色广告：了解促进服装回收利用的努力

时装业是全球主要的污染源，一直更加关注服装生产对环境和生态的影响。某些知名品牌（其中一些得到了美国棉花公司的支持）已经推行了一些计划，在这些计划中，牛仔布和其他类型的衣服可以在商店上交，收集然后送去回收。通常，这些回收工作会受到促销优惠的支持，这些优惠使客户能够以折扣价购买新产品。这可能是自相矛盾的，因为这种方式将回收用于促进进一步的消费。本文探讨了四个美国品牌的回收计划的推广情况：美国之鹰，H＆M，Madewell和The North Face。为此，本文对品牌网站和店内广告进行了文字分析和解构，以及对Twitter消息的KWIC分析。通过检查支持回收工作的有形沟通成分，此分析突出了流程中的“复杂的绿色”（Hepburn，2013），因为消费者对回收的激励促进了进一步的消费，并常常使消费者对这种做法的环境效力感到困惑。本文为时尚品牌在涉足环保主义方面可能更具影响力的方式提供了考虑因素。