Where Does Donated Clothing Go? The Truth Behind Clothing Donations

September 2, 2019 | 5

minute read

Written by Deanna Cook

For most of us that grew up in the age of fast fashion, getting rid of last season’s styles in order to buy new, trendier ones was just a way of life. You may have even been told that your old Forever21 or Target top would help support the local Goodwill, or clothe a child in need in some far-off African nation.

But few of us actually stopped to ask where our clothes went when we dropped them in the donation bin… and the answer might surprise you.

As a Canadian who spent two years living in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, a small coastal town in East Africa, I can definitely confirm that much of our used clothing really does make it overseas. I saw a teenager wearing a GoodLife shirt, kids with Hockey Canada trackpants, and a boy with an Oregon Ducks jersey. My friend even had a reusable bag from the LCBO. But the path these items took to get to Bagamoyo was far from straightforward.

See, the major fast fashion brands of the world taught us that consumption was good, and donating our clothes (in order to buy new ones) was the responsible and conscious thing to do. But in reality, the donation process is a whole lot more complicated than that. In Bagamoyo, like in many other towns and cities across the region, such as Kantamanto in Accra, there was a weekly market called “TopTop” that sold all sorts of products, from kitchen utensils to handmade soap to secondhand clothes.

But how do the clothes actually get from your closet to a market on the other side of the world?

How It Works

• We donate our used clothing in our local cities

• The clothes are packaged up into bales, and then sold in bulk to a middleman

• The middleman exports the clothes (usually to a developing country) and resells them at a profit to someone on the ground. There’s no quality or consistency across orders, and no way for the purchaser to know what they’ll get in each shipment; one could be full of old baby clothes and vintage skirts, and the next a mix of outerwear, ratty cotton t-shirts and plastic junk

• The purchaser then takes their collection of items to the market, and sells each piece to local consumers for as little as a dollar or two. Usually, these imported, secondhand goods are cheaper than buying new, locally-made clothing, so there’s often a steady demand for more shipments

In theory, consumers in these countries now have access to affordable, secondhand clothes. But like everything in life, it’s not that simple.

Here are just a few of the problems inherent to the system:

1.Clothes often don’t make it to your intended destination

It’s almost impossible to trace a particular item and verify where it actually ended up. Statistics Canada data provided by Global Affairs Canada for CBC News reports that used clothing exported from Canada in 2017 alone was worth over CAD $173 million (original source here). The importing countries are spread across the globe, but with a heavy concentration in India, Pakistan and Sub-Saharan Africa.

2. Middlemen are likely the ones profiting from your donation

Even if you donate your items to a local charity or non-profit, they probably receive a lot more clothing than they can actually process or use.  According to the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART), less than a quarter of clothes donated to local charities actually get resold locally. The excess is then bought by a middleman, or a for-profit broker, who prepares the clothing for export. Most of the time, it’s the middlemen, not the charity or the end consumer, who profit the most from your donation.

3. It undermines the local clothing and textile industry

Africa produces close to 10% of the world’s cotton, and in the 1980s, many African countries had growing textile industries. Between the rise of Asian manufacturing and Western secondhand clothing imports over the past few decades though, many of the African clothing and textile businesses just couldn’t keep up. While you’ll still find people wearing traditional fabrics, like the kanga and kitenge, as well as seamstresses and tailors in every community, it’s hard to compete with the rock-bottom prices of a secondhand shirt. Most people only wear locally-made traditional designs or textiles for special occasions, and wear cheap, used clothing for everything else.

4. Countries become reliant on imports

Because local textile and manufacturing industries have been so drastically impacted by globalization and trade, many countries have become reliant on imports in order to satisfy domestic demand. In response to this, the East African Community (which includes Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan) has been discussing banning used clothing imports entirely since about 2015. The original goal was to block all secondhand clothing from entering the region by 2019, which obviously hasn’t happened, as most experts say that an outright clothing ban isn’t the right strategy to boost local industry while meeting the needs of the population. That being said, East African governments recognize that the reliance on foreign imports is a major problem, and something that policy and economic interventions need to address moving forward.

5. Many articles still end up in landfills anyway

In countries like the U.S., Canada, or the U.K., there are lots of great textile recycling programs to collect all the clothing that isn’t resold or exported. These companies take old clothing and fabrics and repurpose them into things like insulation or car upholstery. In places like Bagamoyo, though, finding an accessible, large-scale textile recycler would be nearly impossible – there isn’t even a municipal waste management or recycling system in place. More often than not, I saw fabric scraps and textiles in the garbage, burned, or washed out with the tide, all places that we definitely don’t want our clothing to be. Old Fadama in Ghana is home to 80,000 people, and was once a vibrant community. Now, it has become an informal landfill, as it is the largest unsanctioned dump for clothing waste in Kantamanto. The dump is over 30ft, and at least 60% of it is clothing waste.

When clothing waste is not ending up in backyards, it’s causing an entirely different, but just as devasting, chain of events. Clothing that is deemed unwanted often ends up in city gutters which contributes to local flooding. Flooding and stagnant water quickly increases rates of malaria and cholera, making secondhand clothing waste a public health concern in places like Accra. Additionally, when clothing enters our waterways, it likely always ends up being swept out to sea. Here, microfibers are shed, which pose a large concern to both our marine life and local fishing industries.

So, with all this in mind, what can you do with your used clothes?

• Re-wear the pieces that are already in your closet – as pajamas, as “dirty work” clothing (gardening, painting, cleaning etc.).

• Upcycle them into something different – cleaning rags, yarn from knit sweaters for crafts, etc.

• If the clothing is still in good condition, you can sell it or swap it with a friend.

• If it’s a little more run-down, DON’T put it in the trash – try and find a responsible textile recycler in your community and support the circular economy.

• Single-use tees are a really big issue. They’re usually made for one-time events like concerts, protests, promos, etc., and they’re usually very low quality. When they are done with, they are sent to markets in Africa, yet they have little value there, as most people don’t care to be walking billboards. These items are the least favourable in the fast fashion chain, and are usually the first to be donated. To help counteract this, you can refuse a promo tee the next time you’re offered one. If you already have some, refer to the first bullet point in this list and find ways to re-wear them. If you are a brand, rethink your single-use promo tee needs, and maybe skip producing them altogether the next time you have an event or gathering.

There are lots of ways to get creative with your old clothing as long as you’re willing to put in the effort. But hopefully, you’ll at least think twice now before dropping them off for donation.

For more, follow, support, and learn from @therevival.earth by @afrodistrictpa who is a leader in the African secondhand clothing and upcycling sphere.