Secondhand

A report that analyses the socioeconomic impact of the second-hand clothing industry in the EU, the UK (EU27+), as also the three African countries of Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique, says that the sector generated a cumulative €3 billion of revenues in Europe alone in 2023.

In an attempt to measure the country’s progress towards clothing circularity, a country wide research in Australia has shed light on consumption and disposal traits, and also suggested ways on how to prevent items being unnecessarily sent to landfill.

Consumers in the UK are increasingly ready to make conscious consumption decisions that benefit not just their wallets and wardrobes, but the planet as well as second-hand fashion gains popularity, with 41% of adults now buying and wearing more second-hand clothing than they did two years ago, says an Oxfam survey.

The stigma associated with dirt hinders the way people reuse secondhand garments or choose recycled fabrics that have been woven into something new. This limits the potential to transform the wasteful, polluting and energy-intensive fashion industry into a more sustainable one.

The last piece in this five-part series on the twin subjects of the second-hand clothing in Africa and that of post-consumer textile waste in the content emphasises that the two are, of course, related, but not in the way that Western activists would like us to believe.

It is not just an irony, but an outright travesty that this needs to be emphasised: the second-hand clothing sector does indeed generate jobs in a region where millions live below the International Poverty Line of $2.15 a day. A study that looked at SHC in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia explored a facet that anti-waste activists unfortunately choose to ignore.

The Uganda Circular Textile project is designed to support a transition to a local textile manufacturing base by incorporating clothes that would otherwise end up in landfills into new products and design. Leading the project, which kicked off earlier this year, is WasteAid. Director of Programmes, Michelle Wilson, explains what it takes to navigate the second-hand clothing landscape in the country.

Less than a month ago, the Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association (GUCDA) released a report which contended that media reports of waste were gross over-estimates. These reports and also the campaigns are being driven by flawed data, argues GUCDA General Secretary Edward Atobrah Binkley in this riveting interview with texfash.

One of the many African countries that has been repeatedly mentioned in the swathe of Western media reports about the impact of the second-hand clothing trade is Kenya. But the sector is huge in the country in its spread, and mitumba touches the lives of millions. Yet, the opinion of the Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya (MCAK) has largely gone unheard. The Chairperson of the MCAK, Teresia Wairimu Njenga, tells texfash that much of what abounds is misinformation.

A new study has found compelling evidence that the second-hand clothing (SHC) sector plays a pivotal role in driving job creation, strengthening livelihoods, and generating vital revenue streams for African governments.