Ghana Tons of Used Clothes Fill Landfills: Why is Africa the World's Dumping Ground?
Pollution, plastic waste, filthy air and the ignored used clothing of Ghana
Friday, 5 May 2023
By: TB Obwoge
Inside this mall which claims luxury for all, used, donated clothing from various western countries, mostly the United States are sold. The luxury is that hard working people, with low wages get to pay to wear overpriced used clothing.
What clothing doesn't make it into the store inside malls like the one in the photo, will be sold on roadside shops for less. The luxury of living in Ghana where they refuse to regulate the often times filthy, discarded clothing that people shove into bins in the US called donation boxes.
Most times these bags arrive in the plastic they were placed in, no one weeds through them to make sure that the clothing is viable. They just fill shipping containers, headed to Africa. Ghana though accepts more used clothing then most African countries.
Used clothing imports to Africa strain local ecosystems, waste management
Bridgette Mwale wakes up at 4:00 a.m. and takes the government-subsidized bus 30 kilometers to Harare, Zimbabwe's capital, three to four times a week. There, she hoards an assortment of secondhand clothing before scurrying back to resell the clothes in the dormitory town of Chitungwiza.
There is an increasing need for inexpensive clothing in the African region. Yet at the same time, secondhand clothing imports are contributing significantly to problems of plastic waste and waste management across the continent.
A new report published in February — "Trashion: The Stealth Export of Waste plastic clothes to Kenya" — has provided insight into the impact of secondhand clothing imports to Africa. From Kenya to Madagascar, Uganda to Nigeria and Zimbabwe to Mozambique, secondhand clothing imports are causing strain on natural ecosystems because the supply far outpaces the demand.
Problems are worsened by poor capacity to process waste and decongest landfills that have themselves become health and environmental hazards.
Bales of secondhand clothing arrive on boats that dock at African ports such as Beira in Mozambique before being trucked to regional cities such as Harare, Lusaka in Zambia, and Lilongwe and Blantyre in Malawi. Shipped from Western countries, the secondhand clothing consignments are transported under the cover of darkness, often facilitated through bribery of authorities such as police and military.
Source: NCR Online
Inside of Palace Mall in Spentex, Greater Accra Ghana, there is this store which is Lebanese owned and operated. Inside this store you can find used clothing from American retailers such as Target, Walmart and others.
The owners may claim that the clothing isn't used however they don't have multiple of the same items, why would a store have one design of a Disney teeshirt or 3 shirts from Walmart which are in random sizes?
A rack of shirts will all be white in color but have multiple designs and come from several different companies. Clothing is grouped by color and size not style or design. Or just dumped into a large metal bin.
This is an African wide issue however according to statistics Ghana takes in more than most African countries. With 15 million items each week, 52 weeks in a year would mean 780 million items a year.
There are more than enough roadside shops that sell the used clothing that doesn't make it inside of stores. Africans can some times get better prices if they try asking for them from the seller. Sadly most all of these items were given for free, then sold for a profit.
Old clothing has been turned into thread or yarn for knitting. There are ways to do so instead of throwing the clothes into land fills, Ghana though has not considered any of these helpful ways in their country. The government continues to ignore their own crisis instead they want to tackle homosexuality.
This YouTube video shows how old clothing is recycled into threads which would help the world.
©️TB Obwoge 2023 All Rights Reserved
About the Creator
IwriteMywrongs
I'm the president of a nonprofit. I've lived in 3 countries, I love to travel, take photos and help children and women around the world! One day I pray an end to Child Marriages, Rape and a start to equal Education for ALL children 🙏🏽
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