Alan Wheeler

Ghana’s second-hand Kantamanto Market is protesting the “ongoing misrepresentation, including false claims” that it is a “waste dumping ground,” condemning the “hypocrisy and misinformation campaign” of a US-based NGO.

To unlock the potential of recycled textiles and second-hand clothing, a new research proposes practical reforms to modernise outdated customs codes, introducing new codes, and create clear standards, and trader incentives that will enhance trust, trade efficiency, and transparency to better support the expanding textile circular economy.

Media reports on the amount of textile waste being imported into African countries is much lower than the estimated 40% or more with less than 5% of the imports to Ghana could be considered waste.

New numbers released by environmental group WRAP on Tuesday show that the state of post-consumer textiles in the UK does not augur well for circularity, and the situation is compounded by concerns that the recycling and reuse sector is on the verge of collapse.

Earlier this month, the Textile Recycling Association (TRA) set alarm bells ringing in the UK when it warned of an imminent collapse of the textile recycling sector due to global market challenges. It's complicated, and TRA Chief Executive Officer Alan Wheeler helps disentangle the threads in this deep dive with texfash.com.