The environmental disaster fuelled by used clothes and fast fashion | Foreign Correspondent

Summary

The report examines Ghana’s second-hand clothing trade, centred on Accra’s Kantamanto Market. The trade provides livelihoods for thousands of people: importers buy clothing bales, and retailers sell the better-quality items in the city and nearby villages. But buyers take a financial risk because they cannot inspect bales before purchase, and many garments now arrive in unsellable condition.

The growing volume of low-quality clothing is creating a serious waste problem. A city waste manager says close to 40% of incoming shipments may be worthless. The report says around six million garments a week leave the market as waste, while Accra must dispose of more than 160 tonnes of textile waste each day. A landfill intended to last 15 years filled in five after taking in clothing waste, leaving the city increasingly reliant on informal dumps.

Discarded clothes are swept into drains during heavy rains and carried to the ocean, where tangled textiles can harm aquatic life, hinder swimming, and foul fishing boats. Synthetic fabrics may take hundreds of years to decompose. Some of the waste is also burned, blackening the sky with smoke and exposing nearby communities to pollution.

The costs fall unevenly. People living near informal dumps are left with waste they did not create, while the second-hand trade remains a crucial source of income for many sellers. The report also notes that cheap imports have contributed to the decline of Ghana’s textile industry: local output has fallen by as much as 75% since the 1980s.

Clothing importers interviewed in the report describe worsening quality and see the export of unwearable goods as disrespectful. Liz Ricketts argues that responsibility lies substantially with fashion brands, pointing to overproduction—reportedly as much as 40% for some brands—as part of the industry’s business model. The report also asks Western consumers to consider the quality and final destination of clothes they donate, rather than shifting the waste problem elsewhere.

Presenters and Contributors

• Linton Besser — correspondent and reporter
• Liz Ricketts — researcher documenting clothing waste in Ghana
• Solomon Noi — Accra waste manager
• Asari Asamoah — used-clothing importer
• Emmanuel Ajab — used-clothing importer
• Aisha Idrisu — worker in the second-hand clothing trade
• Christiana — clothing retailer who sells in outlying villages