Tons of rotting clothes pile up, creating foul-smelling, toxic landfills. The waste slowly pouring into the surrounding houses is absorbing more of the green landscape. Cattle graze on top of the heaps, birds flock up in search for food
A bit farther, the ocean washes up fabric fragments covering the sandy beaches. Sounds like an intro to a post-apocalyptic movie? These are the very real effects of the irresponsible practices of the global clothing industry. It is also the thoughtless choices of millions of consumers from wealthier countries.
This is what the space around Accra, the capital and the largest port city in Ghana on the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, looks like. Ships with containers full of out-of-fashion clothes come here every day. Here they are called obroni w’aw – the clothes of a dead white man.
Full containers – a job opportunity?
Aisha works as a kayayei, a woman who carries heavy bundles of clothes. She comes from a nearby village. After her brother received her parents’ inheritance, she lost her small farm. She had to move to the city with hopes of finding a job there. She earns $5 a day, although there are days when she goes home empty-handed. It is hard and dangerous work. One has to carry several dozen kilograms of clothes on top of their head. “I’m afraid that one day I’ll get injured, and I won’t be able to work anymore. I often suffer from back pain that prevents me from sleeping, and I need to take medicine”, she recounts.
Emmanuel trades in the goods that arrive here. Sometimes out of the whole package he buys without knowing its contents, he only manages to sell a few pieces. The rest is rubbish, poor quality clothes or things that nobody will ever buy here, they are simply not wearable. According to him, “In Europe, Australia and America they think, I’m sorry to say, that we are not other human beings.”
Landfills
Out of all the cargo arriving at the port, only 40% are wearable clothes. “All these people who think they’re doing something good by sending us unwanted clothes, if they could see what it’s like here, they’d understand that it’s better to deal with the problem locally rather than sending it here,” adds Noi, the city’s waste management worker. Every day, 150 tons of unwanted clothes end up in landfills outside the city. Synthetic fabrics take thousands of years to disappear. There are hundreds of thousands of tons of such materials left behind. They pollute space, water, soil and air. Tangled clothes cause blockages in waterways and sewers during the rainy season. They contribute to the spread of diseases.
Support peace journalism, support Salam Lab >>>
Clothes donated in good faith also end up in landfills. Many public benefit organizations from Europe, including Poland, Australia, and the US, sell used clothes to the countries of the Global South. The profit is usually donated to a charity, but predominantly to the ones from the country of origin. It is important to pay attention to whether the donated items are recycled within the country or sent away. Before collecting and sending out the unnecessary items to a charity donation, it is worth checking what their further fate will be.
The fashion industry keeps growing
The trade in second-hand clothes started in Accra in 2016, and after only 4 years the surrounding landfills were already overfilled. This situation also poses a threat to the smaller local producers. Western clothes are so cheap that locally produced fabrics can’t compete with them. Garments made of traditional batik material dyed with wax are now worn only on holidays.
However, the fashion industry continues to flourish and finds new ways of even cheaper and faster production. It happens here, in the countries of the African continent. Several large global brands have already moved their sewing factories to Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa. Their representatives say that it provides the local people with a way to break out of poverty, that it’s an injection of energy for economies based on agriculture.
The thousands of tons of clothes ending up in landfills are sadly not seen by those responsible for them. The landscape that is being created as a result pollutes the area and causes health risks. Consumers from the Global North today buy 60% more clothes than just a dozen years ago. Shopping has become a pastime activity and places like Accra have to deal with the consequences of this change. Those who contribute least to the problem end up paying the highest price. The situation must change and we, the consumers, and our choices are a big part of it.
Aleksandra Ciemała – Arabic Studies graduate and Salam Lab intern.
Sources: ABC Net, BBC, Borgen Project, Ejatlas, Green Queen, Tfi Global News, UN, Water Witness.
