GHANA IS DROWNING IN STYLE. IS IT YOUR FAULT?

“Most people abroad go to bed thinking they have done something good for Africans by discarding their unwanted clothing, but the truth is it is actually harming our economy,” says Ernest Ijawan, a manager of the Kpone landfill in Ghana. “Local manufacturers cannot compete with the cheap prices and most of the clothing sent is not wanted by Africans. They end up as waste in landfills like this all over the country.”

Once a beautiful country filled with rich resources and natural beauty, now all that remains is a grotesque, dystopian scenery filled with what, as locals in Ghana refer to, “obroni wawu”, or “dead white man’s clothes”. According to the Observatory for Economic Complexity (OEC), Ghana was the top importer of used clothing in 2020, taking in over $180 million of used clothing. From an acquired interview with The Guardian, we gathered testimonies of inhabitants of the Kantamanto market located in Accra, Ghana, where most of these “donated goods” end up.

Like the other 30,000 market residents, Jacklyn Ofori Bensen depends on reselling clothes as her main source of income. She expressed her fury this morning sifting through heaps of stained clothes and broken zippers. “Today’s bale was very, very costly,” she says. “Most of the 230 items were rubbish; I noticed so many bloodstains. I’m very angry and have thrown all of them away.”

The influx of fast-fashion donations aggravated Ghana’s textile waste problem and undermined the country’s economy. Rapid global demands for trendy, affordable garments contribute to a decline in clothing quality, posing significant challenges to Ghanaians’ livelihoods. To achieve a sustainable future, it is crucial to raise awareness about consumption patterns and promote responsibility regarding recycling and disposal methods.

Initially, imported garments served as second-hand products for businesses in Ghana, providing economic opportunities for locals to hone their skills and build experiences to seek other job opportunities. The handed-down items are affordable for Ghanaians who are not wealthy enough to purchase expensive clothes, allowing creative self-expression even at a low cost. Moreover, this also forms a cultural exchange between people in Ghana and global fashion trends.

So how does a simple donation, something meant to be charitable and supportive, be so destructive to Ghana’s economy and environment?

In 2019, over 65 million tonnes of used clothes were sent to Ghana, however, 40% of that was discarded and not sold. 100 tonnes of clothes from imported batches are discarded daily. John Opoku Agyemang, the secretary of the Kantamanto Hard Workers’ Association, reminisces about his business 24 years ago, when he was able to sell most of the items in a bale. Now, there are about 70 unusable items beyond the point of repair. “The problem of waste is getting worse. For 12 years, the goods coming here have not been good, we can’t benefit from them. It’s my impression that countries abroad think Africa is very poor so they give us low-quality goods and their waste.” he tells us while repairing a pair of shorts from cutout strips of materials.

The city collects approximately 30% of discarded garments, while the rest end up in illegal dumps, ditches, and drains. Textile wastes flow into the Odaw River, Korle Lagoon, and the sea, washing up on beaches, and causing environmental havoc upon marine ecosystems. The Or Foundation, a human rights and environment NGO from the United States, estimates it takes about 200 years to decompose textile wastes, as most are made of cheap synthetic materials. This inevitably destroys marine life when they make their way out to waterways and sea.

“When these clothes are not burned, they can be found everywhere because there are simply not enough landfills to deal with the waste. They go on the beach and form what we call clothing tentacles and these trap fish and stop their growth. Fishermen all over Accra are struggling to make ends meet,” says Samuel Oteng, a volunteer at Or Foundation.

“This has been the trend for us for the past couple of years. We lose our nets because they get tangled up with clothing from the local markets and we don’t even get the fish that we used to. We cannot survive on just one fish” reports a fisherman from Labadi beach in Accra.

As consumers of fast fashion, we should be aware of the potential environmental and economic impact on developing countries, who often import “donations”. While one can assume that donating second-hand clothing is a good recycling method, as someone gains the clothes that you no longer want, what’s essentially being donated is trash due to fast fashion’s cheap and quick production. While it sounds harsh that goodwill is being received negatively, it is important to be aware of your donations’ realistic impact.

Small actions can accumulate into big implications. Raising awareness of the effects of fast fashion donations on textile waste and increasing education on alternative disposal methods (recycling programs or clothing swaps) would only make a small difference in reducing imported clothing. Ultimately, consumers can reduce their reliance on fast fashion trends by adopting sustainable shopping habits. Investing in small amounts of high-quality garments, in the process of building a capsule wardrobe, would significantly cut back on fast fashion waste. Through these implementations, we can work towards reducing textile waste in Ghana, reverting it to what locals once experienced: beautiful landscapes and utopian nature.