Fashion giant H&M is setting out to cut down on the waste created by safe shopping online through a trial scheme that will see it send out clothing in packages which can be re-used rather than requiring customers to dispose of them after they take delivery.

This is thanks to a partnership with RePack, a firm hailing from Finland which has been hitting the headlines recently because of its proposal to introduce more reusable packaging for a variety of product types.

As fashion is one of the largest segments of the e-commerce market in the UK, it would certainly make sense for this shift towards sustainable packaging to be enacted over here. Plenty of fashion products are shipped in packaging which involves single-use plastics, some of which cannot be recycled.

In order to incentivise the return of the RePack packaging, customers of H&M who send it back once they have received their goods will be offered exclusive discounts on their next purchases, which means that this move is good news for consumers as well as for the environment.

Of course, this system will live or die according to how convenient it is for customers to take advantage of it, and the good news is that there is no need to pay for postage when returning the empty packaging. Instead all that customers need to do is head to their local post box and drop it through the slot, with the rest being taken care of by the postal system.

The fact that H&M is giving its backing to this solution, albeit on a small scale for the time being, is a good sign and could mean that other online retailers are encouraged to follow suit. In the long term it could significantly improve how sustainable online shopping can be.