EU Nations Dump 37 million tonnes of Junk Plastic Clothing in Kenya… Every Year!

What the Investigation Revealed: Broadly, the probe found:

• Of the 112 million items of used clothing shipped directly from the EU to Kenya each year, up to one in three contain plastic and are of such a low quality that they are immediately dumped or burned to heat water, for cooking and even allegedly to fuel a power station. Soil, water and air pollution impacts are significant;
• Kenyan traders report clothing soiled by vomit, heavy stains and animal hair. A McDonald’s uniform was found still with the name badge attached. An M&S item with the label “recycle with Oxfam” was photographed being burnt to roast peanuts; 
• Recycling firms that are part of Fashion for Good and Textiles 2030 are trading high volumes of junk clothing, exposing as “empty promises” the sustainability claims made by health, child protection and international development charities.

The Context: The amount of junk clothing flowing to Kenya from global sources has grown significantly in recent years. This amounts to 17 items of clothing every year for each Kenyan, up to eight of which are useless.

• Many items of used clothing exported by European countries pass through a web of countries in and outside Europe that mix and sort clothing, making it impossible to track.

Holding Responsible: CMF has blamed the sector for creating an explosion of poor-quality clothing and trying to hide the consequences with largely misleading ethical claims. 

• Brands should be obliged to pay for their waste, the report asserted, and clothing must be made sustainable by design. The EU is due to propose such measures by the summer.

The Trade in Question: The used clothing trade is an obvious loophole in a 2019 legal agreement stopping richer countries dumping non-recyclable plastic waste in less wealthy ones.

• More than two thirds (69%) of textiles are now made of plastic, such as nylon and polyester, which are almost never recycled.
• Trade data shows that the largest direct exporters to Kenya of used clothing in Europe in 2021 were Germany, Poland and the UK. 
• Most are donations and the trade has become an important revenue stream for some charities. 
• The Netherlands and Belgium act as clearinghouses for large amounts of used clothes from larger European countries.

What They Said:

We went to the Ground Zero of the fast fashion world to unmask an ugly truth — that the trade of used clothing from Europe is, to a large and growing extent, a trade in hidden waste. This is known as waste colonialism and it is supposed to be illegal. A large proportion of clothing donated to charity by well-meaning people ends up this way. Why? Because the backbone of the fast fashion industry is plastic, and plastic clothing is essentially junk. Countries like Kenya are fast fashion’s escape valve. Traders buy bundled clothing blind and understandably dump the growing percentage that turns out to be useless. In truth, our addiction to fast fashion is saddling poorer countries like Kenya with polluted soil, air and water.

— Betterman Simidi Musasia
Founder and Patron 
Clean Up Kenya

Unless the fashion industry is fundamentally changed, what we have seen in Kenya and around the world will be just the beginning. The solution is not to shut down the used clothing trade, but to reform it. We can’t recycle our way out of this problem. Instead, this hedonistic industry needs boundaries and rules. As such, we welcome the vision proposed by the EU. This should be comprehensive and include strict recycling and reuse targets, as well as plastic taxes to shift fashion towards more high quality, sustainable fabrics. Recycling companies cannot be allowed to hide behind their empty promises and should be banned from exporting junk clothing.

— George Harding-Rolls
Campaign Manager
Changing Markets Foundation