The fashion industry has been killing our environment more than ever since the advent of fast fashion and countries like Ghana are paying the price.

People and Animals Walking on Trash Dump — Picture of Burning Trash with People and Animals. Axcel Drainville. CC BY 2.0.

The fashion industry is producing textile waste at an unprecedented rate, filling landfills or being shipped to countries like Ghana. While these clothes are sometimes bought with the goal of reselling, it is estimated that only 20% can be resold.

For years, the Kantamanto Market in Ghana’s capital, Accra, has been receiving weekly shipments of used clothing from Western countries like the United States and Europe, making them known for some of the best second-hand shopping in the world. However, with textile production at an all-time high, Ghana now receives nearly 15 million garments a week, 40% of which are deemed poor quality and immediately sent to landfills. Thus, roughly seven million articles of clothing a week are sent to a landfill in Ghana.

Tractor Shoveling Clothing Waste. Wikimedia Commons. CC0.

Many people in Ghana rely on the resale of clothes as a form of employment. It's a competitive and unpredictable occupation, as sellers buy containers of textiles hoping to find a designer item. Most items in these containers, however, will be deemed unsellable and trashed, a new phenomenon that directly results from fast fashion’s poor quality of clothing production. Sellers earn around $4.50 daily from reselling their finds at the markets.

Clothing waste has overrun Old Fadama, previously a community of color and charm. Old Fadama suffers the highest repercussions in the tragic story of fast fashion, as houses, people and cows live atop piles of discarded textiles and trash residue. One of the largest unsanctioned dumps, Old Fadama is home to nearly 100,000 people, many of whom were already displaced from Northern Ghana due to implications of climate change that affected farming. If not discarded into the streets of Old Fadama, waste is dumped into the waters of Korle Lagoon, which has one of the highest rates of water pollution.

Polluted Lagoon with Trash and Animals — Cows in Korle Lagoon with Trash in Ghana. Slum Dwellers International. CC by 2.0.

Fast fashion is a global crisis, and many are blind to its repercussions. About 85% of new clothing is sent to landfills annually, nearly a garbage truck a second. Overconsumption has become the norm in today's society, and countries that suffer the most extensive consequences of this industry are often overlooked and underreported. Next time you consider buying clothing from Shein, H&M, or Zara, remember “Obroni Wawu,” the city of the dead white man's clothes.

TO GET INVOLVED

Check out these nonprofits working hard to educate, clean and restore the quality of life for citizens in Old Fadama.

1. The Opec Fund for International Development is working on ecological restoration in the Korle Lagoon. They are developing new ways of treating sewage, adding new pumping stations, rehabbing polluted shores, cleaning silt and constructing new ways of draining the lagoon into the sea to avoid flooding.

2. The Fadama Legal Assistance Program is a group of legal assistants who aim to aid the people of Old Fadama. Their main goal is to improve the quality of life for citizens by providing legal advice, raising awareness and ensuring their rights are being protected in any legal disputes.