Africa’s textile waste is increasing due to the fast fashion phenomena and massive influx of second-hand clothing. Despite providing affordable options for poorer nations, imported used textiles have a serious environmental impact.

Around 30% of imported second-hand clothing in Africa ends up in landfills, waterways, or is openly burned which pollutes the environment with microplastics and releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. An Oxford Economics survey undertaken on second hand clothing retailers in Kenya, Mozambique, and Ghana discovered that almost 55% of informal retailers discard unsuitable garments into clothing dumps (Fig. 1).

How does Africa address the apparently ‘circular’ practice of the fashion industry to give second-hand clothes a second life by exporting it to the continent? We have looked at 10 initiatives that tackle this ‘old-fashioned’ issue in Africa.

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