Protected wetlands in Ghana have become dumping grounds for fast-fashion garments shipped from the United Kingdom and other European countries, negatively impacting the quality of life for residents.
What’s happening?
As the Guardian reported, the U.K. ships millions of tons of clothing to Ghana annually. While some residents make a living from selling secondhand clothing, not all of it is suitable for resale. The country does have small-scale recycling initiatives, but they’re not equipped to handle the huge amount of garments arriving every week.
As a result, most items end up being discarded in rivers that flow into the wetlands or at informal dumping sites, where they contaminate ecosystems and put wildlife at risk. The wetlands are home to three types of sea turtles, two of which are endangered, along with rare birds that migrate from the U.K.
The overwhelming amount of clothing that clogs the landscape is also making it harder for locals to fish and earn a living. Not to mention, pollution has turned the previously pristine waters into a health hazard.
“Before, you could drink [the river water],” Seth Tetteh, who lives near the wetlands, told the Guardian. “But now, when you go, you can’t drink it. The water is a bit black.”
“This is so grim — Ghana has become a ‘fast fashion graveyard’ with 15 million items of discarded clothing dumped there every single week. And the worst contributor is the UK!” one Reddit user said in a thread on the r/Anticonsumption subreddit about the clothing waste.
“There is no ‘away,'” another user pointed out.
Why is fast-fashion waste concerning?
Even if clothing brands were able to reuse or recycle all the garments they produce, it wouldn’t change the fact that fast fashion puts a massive strain on the planet because of the resources needed to manufacture and ship the items. Earth.Org reported that the fast-fashion industry produces around 100 billion pieces of clothing each year, and around 101 million tons are discarded in landfills.
Because most items are worn just seven to 10 times before being thrown away, that leaves a lot of clothing to be sorted and processed. Unfortunately, since fast-fashion items are often made cheaply, they typically deteriorate quickly, rendering the majority of them unfit for secondhand markets.
When used clothing is shipped to countries such as Ghana from the U.K. and other wealthy nations, around 40% of imports are deemed unacceptable for resale, per AP News.
“In the past, we had good clothes to sell to take care of our families, but these days the used clothes we find in the bales are not fit for resale,” Accra local Mercy Asantewa told the Guardian. “They are poorly made and are already falling apart when we open the bales.”
Since poorer nations, such as Ghana, lack industrial-scale recycling facilities to handle large amounts of clothing, much of it ends up at dumpsites or in environmentally sensitive areas, including wetlands, rivers, and seas.
What’s being done to hold fast-fashion companies accountable?
The fast-fashion brands whose labels were found in Ghana, including Primark, M&S, and George, said they offer in-store recycling programs where customers can drop off unwanted clothes. Meanwhile, H&M and Zara — two fast-fashion giants that have been heavily criticized for their environmental and social impact — along with George, “said they would support an extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework to hold labels accountable for their products’ end-of-life impact,” per the Guardian.
Consumers can also make a difference by supporting local thrift stores, which often offer high-quality items at a fraction of the retail price, buying from sustainable clothing brands, and simply saying no to fast fashion.
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