The primary marketplace for used clothing in Kenya is Gikomba Market in Nairobi.
It is constantly bustling with shoppers looking for a deal, Western brand names that are recycled and sold for a portion of their original price, and vendors who seem to have an endless supply of sacks full of used clothing.
This market serves as a hub for trade, boosting the local economy and providing employment for people like John Mwangi.
“This trade is what enables me to take care of my daily needs. I do not have skills in any other trade. If it stops I would be stranded with nowhere to go,” says Mwangi.
The mountains of waste the globe generates each year can be reduced by recycling clothing, but some organizations claim that the sheer amount of low-quality used textiles that come to this country is adding to the waste issue.
What the Gikomba Market’s vendors are unable to sell is burned or dumped onto rubbish piles like this one.
The most impoverished people in this place, like Damaris Wanjiru, aspire to feed their children while also providing clothing for their family.
The mother of four says: “We usually search for second hand clothes in the rubbish after which we sort them out. We then pick the ones that are of the best quality and then we wash them. We take some of the clothes to our children and we also wear some.”
“We also have people who come to buy the clothes from us. We make money from our sales and wear the leftovers.”
The textile industry has come under fire from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for the effects of its production on the environment.
It claims that while $460 billion worth of useful clothing is thrown away annually, the clothing sector is responsible for 8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.
According to Janet Chemitei of the environmental organization Greenpeace, wealthy nations send their non-recyclable waste to developing nations like Kenya for disposal.
She says: “The fabrics that they use to produce these clothes are synthetic fibers and this synthetic fibers are produced from fossil fuels which is also harming the environment in the long run and also the people who make these clothes and us who wear them so we really want brands to be accountable and to stop producing fast fashion.”
Greenpeace contends in a research titled “Poisoned Gifts” that used clothing is essentially textile waste and that imports pose a threat to both locally produced goods and the textile industry.
It claims that between 30 and 40 percent of imports, or roughly 74,000 tonnes, are dumped.
Greenpeace claims that because sub-Saharan nations have preferential trade agreements with the United States under the former African Growth and Opportunities Act, it has been challenging for them to outlaw used clothing imported from the US.
The pact has benefited America since the African countries import more from it than they export, claims a report from the Council on Foreign Relations think group.
Organizations like UNEP support the development of new industries that can find new applications for Kenya’s textile waste.
Africa Collect Textiles is one of them; it gathers used textiles for recycling.
Kenya alone imports more than 200 million kg of discarded textiles yearly, according to the Nairobi-based organization.
The company’s co-founder Alex Musembi agrees with Greenpeace’s findings: “According to the report that I have read, 20 to 30 percent of the waste that comes from the Global North is pure trash so that is the problem that we are talking about. The textile waste, waste problem.”
Africa Collect Textiles upcycles used textiles into rugs, pencil cases, and other items that it ships to the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland.
The startup employs 16 people full-time and earns 50,000 euros a year in revenue.
The organization has set up 35 drop off locations where individuals can dispose of unwanted clothing, but it only collects cotton.
Global fashion brands should be held to higher standards of accountability, according to Musembi.
“I am talking about Nike, the like of Adidas and Tommy Hilfiger, the likes of H&M, the likes of Shein etc, they should come up and set up what we call the EPR fund, that is the Extended Producer Responsibility, and for every Euro they sell in terms of profitability, it has to be channeled back to companies like Africa Collect Textiles who are trying to solve their mess here in the country,” says Musembi.
However, even with additional assistance, Africa Collect Textiles will never be able to recycle all of the textile waste that is present in rivers like these.
