One Man’s Trash
Observing the Damage by Nana Kwadwo Agyei Addo
Today the sustainability of the fashion industry is a hot topic. It’s no secret that the fashion industry causes significant harm to both people and the planet, that is fundamentally not sustainable. But the discussions of the fashion system always centre around fast fashion, presenting consumers with the easy alternative to switch to secondhand. However, the secondhand clothing trade is also part of the linear fashion system and it exists to allow the fashion industry to carry on with ‘business as usual’. With millions of tonnes of secondhand clothing being shipped to countries in the Global South, the secondhand clothing trade is also inflicting harm. Post-consumer clothing donations are burdening communities with the role of managing excessive volumes of waste that they played no part in creating, which is causing environmental degradation, destroying local textile industries and placing communities in severe debt cycles. The fashion industry relies on an out of sight, out of mind mentality which has allowed brands, ranging from fast fashion to luxury, to evade any responsibility or accountability for shipping western cast-offs to vulnerable communities. But Big Fashion has a waste problem and it’s time we start seeing some accountability and recognising the role we play as consumers. The rise of fast fashion and rapid overproduction has prompted an unsustainable and unhealthy relationship between consumers and their clothes, introducing a throwaway culture that sees clothing as disposable. Through the constant release of new seasons, trends that disappear quicker than they emerged and the constant urge to have new things, the fashion system has encouraged the rapid consumption of low quality garments, promoting urgency and disposability above all else.
But with rapid consumption comes rapid disposal and currently clothing is being consumed and disposed of at levels that far exceed the capacity of charity shops and textile recycling sites. As a society we have been misled to believe that disposing of “old” clothes to make room for new, through donations, is positively sustainable. We have always been told that someone, somewhere will be grateful for the things that we no longer want or need. The truth is, we have been using philanthropy as a disguise for convenience. More often than not we donate our old clothes to make room for new ones, as this seems to make our consumption habits more justifiable and at the same time we have been led to believe that our clothes are going to someone who needs them, so all in all it seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement. This is where problems arise because when we donate our used clothing and make the assumption that someone, somewhere will be grateful for it, a hierarchy is created. The saying, “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” comes to mind. The linear fashion system and the culture of disposability that has emerged has allowed us to convince ourselves that our secondhand clothing will always be desirable. But this is far from the reality when we have come to value our used clothing as ‘trash’. How should another human being be expected to value and treasure something that someone has been treated and disposed of as mere trash? Rather than fostering a sustainable exchange through recycling used clothing, by treating clothes as disposable and donating them without consideration for their value or condition, we are perpetuating a vicious cycle of waste colonialism. The Global North is using the Global South as a form of waste management to allow for continued consumption.
Kantamanto market in Accra, Ghana is the physical embodiment of this harm, bearing the burden of the Global North’s excessive consumption and waste on a day-to-day basis. With the rise of fast fashion inducing the rise of secondhand clothing donations, many communities in the Global South are bearing the burden of the Global North’s excess. When you donate your used clothing to a charity shop, thinking it will end up with someone who needs it, there is a high chance it will be exported here, to Kantamanto Market, the largest secondhand clothing market in the world. This donation will be among the 15 million garments that enter Kantamanto every week. To put this into perspective, the total population of Ghana is estimated to be around 34 million people, so every two weeks there is almost one item of used clothing for every person in Ghana, showing the extent to which the supply immensely outstrips the local demand. This supply of secondhand clothing is entirely dictated by the Global North who control the narrative by sending bales that are riddled with the lowest quality garments - stained, soiled and unwearable, meaning almost half of this clothing entering Kantamanto is leaving as waste. This is waste colonialism. Defined as the domination of one group of people in their homeland by another group of people through waste and pollution, waste colonialism is more than visible in the way the Global North ships its waste to communities like Kantamanto.
Image by Nana Kwadwo Agyei Addo
The problem lies in the power imbalance of decision-making, as the Global North are dictating what is ‘wearable’ and desirable for Ghanaian retailers and customers, when the Western standard of quality is far lower than the Ghanaian standard of quality. While the quality of clothing that many Western consumers are familiar with is the bare minimum, because of the nature of fast fashion and this culture of disposability, many Ghanaian consumers have a much greater knowledge and familiarity with tailoring and garment manufacturing. There is a much greater value and sentiment associated with clothing and textiles that is inherently absent from Western relationships with fashion. Waste is a byproduct of the disposability culture in the Global North and highlights the absence of value. Despite the amount of waste entering Kantamanto, this is not from an absence of value. The secondhand clothing circulating Kantamanto was first referred to as Obroni W’awu, meaning Dead White Man’s Clothes.
This name, used to describe the influx of secondhand clothing that began arriving in Ghana in the colonial period, emerged from the idea that someone must have died to be getting rid of so much clothing. During the British colonial rule local citizens were forced to conform to Western professional dress codes, devaluing traditional dress and creating a demand for Western clothing. This coincided with the rise of the credit card, especially in the United States, fuelling the desire for mass consumption and the need for an outlet of ‘old’ clothing to make room for new. So the secondhand clothing trade emerged - to conveniently benefit the West. During British colonial rule and today, when waste colonialism is in full force, we are seeing the continued erasure of Kantamanto’s identity. Through the domination of cheap imports that are more affordable than traditional Ghanaian garments, the secondhand clothing trade has decimated local textile industries and economies. Local textile manufacturers are unable to survive against the influx of cheap Western clothing.
Image by The Or Foundation
While many people think that these clothing donations enter Kantamanto as ‘charity’, they are not simply donated to Ghana, they are sold as bales to retailers. The retailers are operating blindly, paying high costs for bales of clothing that they don’t know the condition of until they cut them open. Often retailers will cut open a bale and find clothing of the lowest quality that they won’t be able to sell, meaning they make little to no profit off the bale they have already paid for. Even if the quality is high, the clothing still might not be culturally appropriate or climate-appropriate. A winter coat will not serve much use in the Ghanaian climate. As much as 40% of the average bale of clothing that enters Kantamanto, leaves as waste, because of the poor quality of the clothing from the Global North. Not only is this leaving many retailers in vicious cycles of debt, it’s overflowing landfills, leading to informal disposal and incineration, and seeing a rising number of gutters clogged with clothing. This leads to flooding which is creating a public health crisis by increasing risks of cholera and malaria. But this isn’t just a health crisis, this is an environmental crisis. Accra’s beaches have become littered with giant tangled masses of clothing - referred to as tentacles - that have washed ashore, while other masses will sit on the seafloor, destroying the marine ecosystem and devastating local fishing industries.
These are the disproportionate costs of waste colonialism. The Global North can continue overproducing and over consuming, whilst communities, like Kantamanto, are not offered any reparations or support. They are left to carry the burden of the Global North’s excess.