Germana Carillo Fast fashion has generated an unsustainable consumption model: each European throws away an average of 11 kg of clothes per year and less than 1% is recycled. The textile sector is among the most polluting in the world and Ghana is now paying the most direct consequences
@The Or Foundation
Table of contents
Kantamanto is the world’s largest secondhand clothing bazaar. It is located in Accra, Ghana, and this is where countless pieces of clothing we don’t wear anymore wind up—by the ton.
Devastated by a massive fire in the early hours of January 2 that reduced over 60% of its 753,000 square feet to ashes and left at least 8,000 vendors in shambles, the market has witnessed what the NGO Or Foundation called “the biggest disaster in its 15-year history.” Now, a quick question needs to be raised: shouldn’t the fashion industry as a whole be held accountable for this fiasco?
The response, in all honesty, is yes. What was once regarded as being a top destination in a circular economy has simply failed. Kantamanto receives some 60 million secondhand and unwanted clothes annually, but 40% of them become waste the moment they arrive.
Why Ghana Is Used as a Fast Fashion Dumping Ground
Did you know that some of the clothes you discard might find their way to Ghana? The West African country is one of the top destinations for secondhand clothing in Europe.
But it’s not just secondhand clothes. Kantamanto, Ghana’s largest textile sorting market, is also flooded with overstock from fast fashion chains like H&M, Zara, Primark, and Shein.
Almost half of the clothes that reach here are not usable, said a Greenpeace study. Every week, 15 million pieces of clothing, mainly low-quality and not suitable for sale, are discarded in Ghana to become rubbish.
We exhaustively covered this topic: Fast fashion: Where do your old clothes go? 15 million shirts contaminate the nation of Ghana every week.
What happens to these clothes?
Unfortunately, the majority of the clothes find their way to illegal dumping sites or are burned at public washhouses, leading to severe pollution of air, water, and land. Ghana has become one of the world’s largest dumping grounds for used clothing. Fewer than a third of the imported clothes are actually re-sold or recycled—the remaining amount becomes a environmental and public health disaster for communities.
The Dark Side of Fast Fashion
Fast fashion has completely transformed the way we shop and consume clothing. With new collections emerging every week and rock-bottom prices, major brands encourage a culture of throwaway shopping that is destroying the world. The fashion industry is one of the world’s most polluting industries, with fourth-largest environmental and climate footprint in the world, states the European Commission.
The statistics are terrifying: 24 pounds of garments discarded annually per European citizen, and every two seconds a whole truckload of garments dumped on landfills or incinerated. Recycling? A necessity forgotten mostly—less than 1% of discarded clothes are recycled.
Behind fast fashion is a system that generates unsustainable levels of waste and transfers the cost to countries like Ghana. It’s time we considered buying clothes in a different way.
What Does Happen to Secondhand Clothing in the United States?
In America, secondhand follows the same path, but with different dynamics. Around 85% of all cloth ends up in landfills or burners, despite the availability of donation and recycling centers. Places like Goodwill and The Salvation Army sort through donations, selling what they can. But surplus unwanted clothes end up elsewhere—Ghana, Kenya, and Pakistan, for example.
The successful resale culture in the U.S., driven by websites like ThredUp and Poshmark, has reduced waste by a minor margin. However, fast fashion businesses continue to churn out poor-quality apparel at unsustainable rates, ensuring the problem persists. Even in the U.S., landfills are being stuffed with second-hand clothing, creating an alarming environmental problem.
