Unwanted clothes from UK wash up on Ghana beach
PILES of unwanted clothing are washing up on beaches in Accra, as new photos show the damage the UK’S “fast fashion” industry is causing in Ghana.
According to environmental experts, the UK’S second-hand clothes market is overwhelmed by a surplus of poorquality items that cannot be resold.
Some of these are sent to countries on the other side of the world, imports which originally created thriving second-hand markets but are now overwhelming the recycling infrastructure.
Ghana is one of the main recipients of the UK’S used clothing, 70 per cent of which is sent overseas, according to the sustainability charity WRAP.
However, nearly half of the imported clothes that Ghana receives cannot be resold because they are either of such low quality or have been personalised as one-off items that no one wants, for example hen party T-shirts or novelty sports kit.
These unwanted items are now being dumped in landfill sites or they end up polluting rivers, beaches and the sea.
Ghana is not the only country being damaged by British citizens’ fast fashion habits, campaigners claim. Each year, an estimated 39,000 tons of clothes from developed countries are being dumped in Chile’s Atacama desert.
The United States is the world’s largest second-hand clothes exporter; the UK is the second.