Africa-unbound: 40% of 'pre-loved' clothing is actually textile waste

Greenpeace Germany's toxics campaigner, Viola Wohlgemuth, who visited the two countries, wrote on the Greenpeace website: "Fast fashion brands are promoting circularity, but reality shows that this is still a myth. Nowhere is the failure of the fast fashion linear business model more visible than in the countries where many of these cheap clothes end up once their short lives are over: on huge dump sites, burnt on open fires, along riverbeds and washed out into the sea, with severe consequences for people and the planet."

The problem, which emanates from the Global North, is this: only a small amount of used clothes is actually resold in the country where they were collected. "For example, out of the 11,000 tonnes of clothing donated to Oxfam in the UK every year, 3,000 tonnes (27%) are sold in its shops. Of the remaining 8,000 tonnes, 1,000 tonnes are disposed of and 5,600 tonnes (half of that donated) head abroad to Eastern Europe and East and West Africa. It is estimated that more than 70% of all UK reused clothing heads overseas—joining a global secondhand trade in which billions of old garments are bought and sold around the world every year."

It's also a question of trading practices which are weighed heavily in favour of the Global North. Wohlgemuth wrote: This effectively turns Global South countries into dumping grounds for fast fashion waste, while doing little or nothing to support or develop the clean manufacturing of local textiles and garment production that is needed in these countries, using the same high standards and best practices that are required in Europe."

There are, of course, success stories in both Tanzania and Kenya where novel initiatives are creating positive solutions and developing their own form of circularity. Examples include: Anne Kiwia (Tanzania), Suave (Kenya), Mama Hokororo (Tanzania) and Africa Collect Textiles (Kenya).

The report mentions the recently-announced EU Textiles Strategy and calls for the implementation of the following:

• Only the export of used clothes that can actually be reused as wearable clothing should be allowed; the export of textile waste from the Global North should be banned.
• A guarantee that any unusable imported used clothing can be sent back to the country of origin.
• Extended producer responsibility legislation including a global tax on each product when it is placed on the market to fund the separate collection of textiles which is environmentally sound, to enable the professional reuse and recycling of textiles.
• This tax should also integrate the ‘Polluter Pays’ principle—i.e. the producer is made financially responsible for the cost of cleaning up the environmental and health damage caused throughout the supply chain, regardless of the geographical extent of the damage.
• The phase-out of synthetic fibres needs to be implemented as soon as possible to prevent them ending up in the environment in the Global South.
• Transparency on the materials clothes are made of (eg. The Digital Passport proposed by the EU for textiles should be in the form of a QR code printed on the product that contains the necessary information), which is not easily removed by users or recyclers.