• According to a recent report from the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the global fashion industry is responsible for 8-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all international flights and shipping combined.

• One of the main sources of this environmental impact is the disposal of unwanted clothing. Synthetic materials in particular are a problem, requiring an estimated 342 million barrels of oil per year to produce.

• Europeans throw away 2 million tons of textiles every year. 70% of donated clothing is shipped to Africa for resale on local markets (source Eurostat, Oxfam).

• We buy more clothes than ever. One billion items of clothing end up in the waste every year. We buy an average of 46 new items of clothing per year. We have 173 items of clothing in the closet, 50 of which are unworn. We also get rid of another 40 items of clothing per year.

• The most beautiful garments stay in the Netherlands, the inferior ones go to Eastern Europe. And the real cast-offs end up in Africa.

• Kenya imports more than 140,000 tons of used clothing per year (source Usaid). Due to declining quality, sometimes as much as 50% of used clothing has to be thrown away. Due to the lack of proper waste management, it ends up in landfills, often at the edges of roads and rivers. Ultimately it ends up in the sewage system or oceans.

• Ghana also appears to be a gigantic collection point for our discarded clothing.

• West Africa’s largest second-hand clothing market is the Kantmanto market in Accra, Ghana. 20 million discarded garments arrive here every week from Western countries. Research showed that 40% of this leaves the market as waste. Unusable clothing ends up in the sea through sewers, washes up again and becomes buried under the sand. Accra’s beach is littered with them. Another part is dumped on illegal garbage dumps in the area. Waste pickers look for the very last usable clothes, working in toxic burning smells. Many of the clothes are burned in the open air to get rid of them.

• Made for low wages in China or Bangladesh, sold in Western countries, hardly worn and quickly discarded. Fast fashion is disastrous for the environment in many ways. Garments are becoming increasingly cheaper and of poorer quality. They are predominantly made of synthetic materials, such as polyester, and can almost never be recycled into new clothing.

• Clothes and shoes are bought online en masse, tried out and returned, only to be no longer offered. Collections follow each other at an increasingly rapid pace. In the Netherlands alone, an estimated 1 billion items of clothing are thrown away every year.

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