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So what happens to your clothes when you donate them to a charity shop? Well ... at the rate that we are burning through clothes only about 10% is currently sold. The other 90% move on to either landfill or the global south. We're currently recycling about 1% of textile waste.
So let's learn about what's going on in the Global South currently. I direct your attention to the Kantamanto Market in Accra Ghana. Let's do a little deep dive with our help from our friends at @theORispresent.
The Kantamanto Market is possibly the largest second hand market in the world. Every week the market receives 15 million items of clothing from the global North (yes, your charity donations sometimes end up there). It employs 30,000 people who recirculate our waste.
These 30,000 people work 6-7 days a week reselling that top that you might have bought our of boredom and wore once. And the resellers pay for your clothes. Bales weighing $120 lb sell for $75 - $500 a piece. People go into debt trying to find something worthy of selling.
It's considered a gamble and a risky market. But at the same time, it's a multi leveled problem because this market insures that many local designers have a hard time selling their clothes for the price that they're worth. Who can compete with this much waste.
There was a fire around Christmas of 2020 which obliterated a large part of the market. People are REALLY suffering now. The system was far from perfect but this has made things so much worse.
Less than 20% of resellers make a profit on the bales they buy. It's more about breaking even and surviving. Since Ghana like the rest of us is experiencing lockdown, it hasn't been a great year for Kantamanto. The cost of bales additionally went up too.
People who were already in debt were hoping that Christmas sales would help. Unfortunately the fire squashed that. I also find it ironic that the retailers on the #PayUp list left garment factories in Bangladesh with clothing they weren't interested in selling during this time.
Anyways the fire "razed a portion of the market took with it roughly 200 stalls piled high with bales, sewing machines, knitting machines and thousands of units of finished garments, mostly school uniforms" - @theORispresent .
People who were barely making ends meet were left with nothing. They're recirculating our waste because we dump it on them in an imperfect system and now there is nothing for some. Here's some footage from the aftermath:
I personally wish I could find those women and give them the money lost. I wish I could pay for her son's surgery. I just want to help in any way I can.
So @theORispresent is fundraising $40,000 to help some of those sellers out. Imagine if you lost everything during this time. Hundreds of people did. Imagine if you took a risk to pay for your child's surgery and everything went up in flames.
The following tweets are from @theORispresent (not me): "We hope to raise a minimum of $40,000 which will be distributed in $200 units to 200 retailers, tailors, cleaners and dyers who were impacted by the fire." Some retailers lost $5000 in goods, so more is clearly needed.
@theorispresent "Retailers have said that they would use the $200 for a range of purposes including paying off debt, buying a new bale of clothing, paying their children’s school fees and rebuilding their shop."
Here's where it gets weird, big luxury conglomerates like @KeringGroup are currently restoring Plaza's in Italy. Which is good. I would love to see Kering put some funds in this direction too. It is SO NEEDED. We can do all the things, fashion industry: https://www.kering.com/en/news/underlining-its-strong-ties-with-florence-kering-sponsors-improved-facilities-for-the-palazzo-vecchio-courtyard
If we can take care of historical bits of the Global North, we need to immediately start thinking about how we're gonna start redirecting some of those funds to the Global South that pay the price of all of our consumption. So @KeringGroup I plead to you today, to help out here.
@theORispresent is fundraising the help out some of the sellers of Kantamanto who are facing poverty. I know that times are tough for everyone. But if you had a little to give, it would be much appreciated. https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/kantamanto-market-fire-relief
If you don't have funds to spare one thing you can do is ask your favorite big brand to find some money to spare at this time. They have it to give and we need to remind them that this is on them ... even more so than us.
Here's some additional reading material about Kantamanto: https://eco-age.com/magazine/decolonising-fashion-dead-white-mans-clothes-ghana/
I donated to this fundraiser ... not because I'm rich (I'm not) but because that's what I used to spend on fast fashion in a matter of weeks. Now I redirect those funds to those who get fucked over by a system I have undoubtedly played my part in.
