Ghanaian designers come up with a remedy as the waste from fast fashion contaminates the environment.

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– It's called Obroni Wawu October, or "dead white man's clothes," and in Ghana's capital of Accra, it's an annual fashion and thrifting festival that takes place at the other end of the street. This year's theme: fashion made from waste. "Instead of allowing [textile waste] to choke our gutters or beaches or landfills, I decided to use it to create something ... for us to use again," says designer Richard Asante Palmer, per Quartz. He's one of the designers at the Or Foundation's annual fashion and thrifting festival, in which models walk in clothes made from trash from the Kantamanto market. The event is named for the native Akan language, which translates to "dead white man's clothes." Ghana is a major importer of used apparel from the US, UK, Canada, China, and other countries. According to the Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association, it also transports some of its purchases from the US, UK, Canada, China, and other countries to other West African countries, the US, and the UK. However, some of the imported clothing arrives in such bad condition that the vendors have to throw it out to make way for the next shipment. Nee

Early morning consumers jostle as they sift through mounds of clothing in Ghana’s capital’s expansive secondhand clothing market, hoping to unearth a designer item or a deal among the kiosks offering low-quality, old clothing imported from the West. A glitzy and glamorous upcycled fashion and thrifting festival is taking place at the other end of the street. On a makeshift runway, models walk in clothing made by designers using trash from the Kantamanto market, which includes anything from leather bags, hats, and socks to floral blouses and denim trousers.

In the native Akan language, the celebration is named Obroni Wawu October, which translates to “dead white man’s clothes.” The event’s organisers regard it as a little step in breaking the vicious loop that has turned Western overconsumption into an environmental issue in Africa, where some of the discarded clothing ends up in landfills and waterways. Richard Asante Palmer, one of the designers at the annual festival hosted by the Or Foundation, a nonprofit organisation that operates at the nexus of environmental justice and fashion development, stated, “Instead of allowing (textile waste) to choke our gutters or beaches or landfills, I decided to use it to create something… for us to use again.”

Ghana is a major importer of used apparel in Africa. According to the Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association, it also transports some of its purchases from the US, UK, Canada, China, and other countries to other West African countries, the US, and the UK. However, some of the imported clothing arrives in such bad condition that the vendors have to throw it out to make way for the next shipment. According to Neesha-Ann Longdon, business manager for the executive director of the Or Foundation, an average of 40% of the millions of garments that are shipped to Ghana each week wind up as waste.

Just 5% of the goods that arrive in Ghana in bulk are thrown out right away because they cannot be sold or reused, according to a report released earlier this year by the Clothing Dealers Association on the socioeconomic and environmental effects of the country’s secondhand clothing trade.

Because they are less expensive than new, people in many African nations tend to purchase used clothing, as well as automobiles, phones, and other needs. Additionally, they have the opportunity to purchase designer items that are out of reach for the majority of people in the area when they shop secondhand. However, Ghana’s 34 million-person population and overburdened infrastructure are ill-prepared to handle the volume of used clothing coming into the nation. Beaches throughout Accra, the capital, and the lagoon, which is the primary outflow through which the city’s main drainage channels pour into the Gulf of Guinea, are covered in mounds of textile waste.

“Fast fashion has taken over as the dominant mode of production, which is characterised here as higher volumes of lower-quality goods,” Longdon stated. According to local fisherman Jonathan Abbey, his nets frequently catch textile debris from the ocean. “Aren’t even burned but are thrown into the Korle Lagoon, which then goes into the sea,” Abbey explained of unsold used clothing. According to Andrew Brooks, a researcher at King’s College London and the author of Clothing Poverty: The Hidden World of Fast Fashion and Second-Hand Clothes, the convenience of online purchasing has accelerated this waste cycle.

Unwanted purchases frequently wind up as charitable gifts in nations like the United Kingdom, but occasionally clothing is taken from street donation bins and shipped to regions where there is thought to be a greater market for it, according to Brooks. Because the clothing is “seen as low-value items,” authorities rarely look into such thefts, he said. For their part, donors believe their castoffs are “going to be recycled rather than reused, or given away rather than sold, or sold in the U.K. rather than exported overseas,” Brooks stated.

There have been allegations that Africa is being exploited as a landfill due to the amount of used clothing that is shipped there. Despite pressure from the United States, Rwanda increased duties on these imports in 2018, claiming that the West’s rejection would jeopardise attempts to develop the country’s textile sector. Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda, declared last year that he would outlaw the importation of garments “from dead people.”

According to experts, trade restrictions may not have a significant impact on lowering textile pollution or promoting the creation of apparel in Africa, where earnings are poor and designer incentives are weak. Organisations like the Or Foundation are attempting to change the situation by encouraging young people and fashion designers to discover useful uses for waste materials in the lack of sufficient steps to limit the pollution.

Before Ghana’s waste management issues grew worse in recent years, there weren’t many abandoned garments on the country’s beaches, according to Liz Ricketts, a co-founder of the foundation. “Fast forward to today, 2024, there are mountains of textile waste on the beaches,” she stated.