Secondhand clothing ban detrimental - Or Foundation, AMA call for textile circular economy

The Or Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in Accra, and the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) have called for a balanced, systemic solution to the global textile waste crisis, opposing the idea of a complete ban on secondhand clothing imports. 

The two organisations, in a joint press release issued yesterday, advocated a justice-led circular economy that tackled the root cause of the crisis — overproduction — while prioritising the well-being of communities, particularly those reliant on Kantamanto Market, one of the largest secondhand clothing hubs in the world.

Or Foundation and AMA stressed the importance of improving conditions within the Kantamanto Market, which played a crucial role in Ghana’s reuse economy, and called for solutions that preserved the local reuse economy, which had the potential to make the country a global leader in sustainable fashion.

The foundation and the AMA said the Kantamanto Market, which creatively reused, repaired, and upcycled discarded clothing, provided a climate-positive solution, adding that a ban on secondhand clothing imports would undermine the model of circularity and expose the local market to new, low-quality garments from fast fashion brands.

The two also highlighted that over 30,000 people were estimated to be working in the Kantamanto Market, recirculating secondhand clothing across West Africa, stressing that the economic behaviour of the fashion industry had resulted in the excessive quantity and declining quality of garments, contributing to waste rather than alleviating it. 

Reduce production

Both organisations argued that an outright ban on secondhand imports would be detrimental, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of Ghanaians without addressing the true issue — overproduction by global fashion brands, hence urging fashion brands to reduce production volumes and take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products under an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework.

The statement added that the two organisations were working on initiatives to support remanufacturing and recycling practices in the country, which they believed could boost the reuse sector and create new economic opportunities.

“These efforts can be further enhanced by globally accountable EPR policies, which would move resources to receiving markets like Kantamanto,” it added.

Big names

The Foundation and AMA pointed out that they were leading environmental cleanup efforts in Accra, removing over 20 tonnes of textile and plastic waste from the city’s beaches every week, and that their work had uncovered discarded clothing tags from brands such as Nike, Marks & Spencer and H&M, linking international fashion brands to the environmental degradation seen in Accra.

That, they said, supported the argument that overproduction from fast fashion was the true source of the textile waste problem. Or Foundation and AMA called for policies that would hold global fashion brands accountable for the waste they produced.