STOP GHANA FROM BECOMING EUROPE’S TEXTILE WASTE DUMPSITE
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Africa has become Europe’s fashion waste dumping hotspot.
We were concerned by reports that 15 million second-hand items of clothing were arriving in Ghana every week. [1]
And in our just-released report, Fast Fashion, Slow Poison, we highlight that every week up to 500,000 items of clothing waste from Kantamanto Market end up in open spaces and informal dumpsites.
Mountains of unusable clothing are dumped in informal dumpsites (Accra has run out of landfills) and can be seen piling up on the edges of lagoons and beside beaches.
Infrared testing we carried out revealed that 89% of clothing waste in Ghana’s dumpsites contains synthetic fibres, leading to widespread microplastic contamination. We also found that clothes are burnt in open fires to heat water in public washhouses leading to levels of benzene exceeding European indoor air guide values by almost 200 times.
Enough is enough!
Instead of importing the Global North’s fast-fashion waste problem let’s put African solutions first.
Will you sign the petition now?
[1] ‘It’s like a death pit’: how Ghana became fast fashion’s dumping ground
To Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama:
Ban the import of textile "dead waste” immediately.
21,229 supporters
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Our demands to Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama:
- Ban the import of textile waste - especially 'dead waste' with no resale value that ends up in Ghana’s landfills, beaches, and water bodies
- Call for mechanisms to make polluters and clothes companies pay for the environmental and health damage they cause
- Demand the implementation of effective Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes to hold companies accountable for the full lifecycle of their products
- Present a clear plan to invest effectively in local solutions and slow, circular systems for the clothing and fashion sectors that will highlight makers and upcyclers of clothes and fashion which are crucial in alleviating the fashion waste problem in Ghana
The more people taking action, the more impact we'll have.
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