When an item of clothing is donated to charity in Europe, the chances are that it will end up in Africa.
We have the Kantamanto market in Accra and the Katangua market in Lagos.
Time magazine reports that the dress you never liked much might end up packed in a bale with hundreds of other cast offs and exported on a shipping container and end up in a second-hand market in a country such as Ghana.
The global second-hand clothing trade has increased seven-fold in the past four decades and Ghana is one of the world’s largest importers of used clothes. In 2023, the country imported 143,915 tonnes of used clothing. 53,970 tonnes came from EU countries like the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Italy and Belgium. However, used textiles are often reexported through multiple countries.
The trade in used textiles is just one example of European excessive contribution to global resource use. While EU policies that aim to reduce fashion waste and make the most of natural resources are under development for the 30,000 people who work informally in the resale, repair, and remanufacture of imported second-hand textiles at the Ghanaian capital’s Kantamanto market, circularity is already part of their daily reality.
Source: Pretty View TV
The Accra market is one of the world’s largest reuse and remanufacturing hubs. Only a few places compare to its large, highly-skilled workforce on the frontline of textile circularity, especially in the countries that send used clothing to Ghana.
Unpacking the bales they invest in to prepare for resale is a lottery for the retailers working in Kantamanto. Research has shown that about 40% of each bale imported into Ghana contains items retailers cannot make any profit from. Some would require significant investment to make them sellable while others are totally unsuitable for Ghana’s tropical climate. Some are in such bad condition that they are beyond repair. If retailers cannot sell the clothing in bales, and consistently lose money after investing in them, it leaves them in a debt cycle.
Also, if retailers cannot generate economic value from second-hand clothing imports, it means there is little financial capacity left over to invest in safety and infrastructure at the market. On January 2, 2025, a devastating fire broke out at the market destroying 60% of the market. The exact cause of the fire remains unknown but concerns about fire safety have long been raised. Alleyways in the market are too narrow for carts to pass through. So, the only way to transport the 55 kg bales is through head carrying and the carriers suffer devastating spinal injuries as a result.
The large amounts of imported clothing that remain unsold cause major environmental problems for Ghana. As a result of a lac k of municipal funding and infrastructure to cope with the amount of waste, textiles clog up over 100 hectares of dumpsites and polluted zones in Accra, more than 15 hectares of decommissioned landfills, and pollute more than 10 kilometres of the coastline. Poor quality synthetic items that take decades to break down damage coastal habitats, resulting in turtles being unable to scoop sand to deposit their eggs. Moreover, plastic microfibres shed from textiles enter the food chain, affecting aquatic life and, in turn, human health.
Video credit: Ebunoluwa Oluloro
The market is just an example of the social and environmental challenges associated with the used textile trade, which are ultimately caused by the soaring volumes of n ew textile products being placed on the global market each year.
As the EU develops new rules on textile waste management, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and the Environmental Coalition on Standards (ECOS) demand enhanced end-of-waste criteria, better rules for waste management, and strong schemes to make producers cover the costs of textile waste- so called “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR).
The EU must take responsibility for the unsustainable volumes of textiles it discards, and not shift the burden to communities outside the EU. The time is now to ensure EPR schemes effectively support the regions that are heavily impacted by used textile exports from the EU, tighten up the rules around the murky export trade, and- above all – reduce the excessive oversupply of new textiles produced every year in the first place.
