• Login
NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
  • Home
  • News
    • General
    • Political
  • Economy
  • Business
    • Agribusiness
    • Aviation
    • Banking & Finance
    • Energy
    • Insurance
    • Manufacturing
    • Markets
    • Maritime
    • Real Estate
    • Tourism
    • Transport
  • Technology
    • Telecom
    • Cyber-security
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Tech-guide
    • Social Media
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
  • Reports
    • Banking/Finance
    • Insurance
    • Budgets
    • GDP
    • Inflation
    • Central Bank
    • Sec/Gse
  • Lifestyle
    • Sports
    • Entertainment
    • Travel
    • Environment
    • Weather
  • NRTV
    • Audio
    • Video
No Result
View All Result
No Result
View All Result
NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
No Result
View All Result
Home highlights

Fast fashion in the U.S. is fueling an environmental disaster in Ghana

4 years ago
in highlights, Home, home-news, latest News
2 min read
0 0
0
153
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linkedin

Fast fashion in the U.S. is fueling an environmental disaster in Ghana

The rise of fast fashion in the United States is supporting an invisible “salvage market” that sees American clothes waste shipped to faraway countries where it fills marketplaces, clogs up beaches and overwhelms dumps.

There has been a five-fold increase in the amount of clothing Americans buy over the last three decades, but each item is worn only an average of seven times, according to reports. This has resulted in more discarded clothing than ever.

Many Americans donate their used clothing to charities when they are finished with it, under the assumption that it will be reused. But with the increasing amount of items being discarded, and the poorer quality of fast fashion, less and less can be resold, and millions of garments are put into bales and shipped abroad every year.

“Whatever they cannot sell in their thrift stores gets sold off into the ‘salvage’ market,” Liz Ricketts, co-founder and director of the OR Foundation, told CBS News.

“It’s a long and complicated supply chain that is completely invisible to not only the average person, but even to people participating,” Rickets said.

“The U.S. is the biggest culprit”

At Ghana’s Kamanto market, around 15 million items of used clothing from Western countries arrive every week. The entire population of Ghana is only 30 million.

RelatedPosts

CHAN 2024: Kenya Holds Angola to Draw While DR Congo Claims Vital Win Over Zambia

Teen Sensation Victoria Mboko Stuns Naomi Osaka to Claim Maiden WTA 1000 Title at Canadian Open

Government Unveils Plan to Grow Textile and Garment Industry to $2bn by 2033

“The whole fast fashion model is built around… building cheap clothing, and the U.S. is the biggest culprit, exporting more second-hand clothing than any other country on earth,” Samuel Oteng, a fashion designer and project manager at the Or Foundation, told CBS News.

Must Read: Government has better resources; it has no excuse in running economy – Tekper

Trucks offload bales of textiles — called Obroni Wawu, or “Dead White Man’s Clothes” — at the market, which is a seven-acre maze of over 5,000 stalls. The bales are purchased by market traders — who do not know ahead of time what’s in them — for between 25 and 500 dollars each. They then clean, tailor, and re-dye what they can of the clothing to give it new life.

screenshot-2021-09-16-at-16-06-39.png

But Oteng says upcycling is becoming increasingly difficult because of the poor quality of fast fashion garments.

“Before they used to have good quality clothes, but now there’s a lot of trash,” he said.

“I feel like waste is being built into the model of fast fashion: Overproduce, overproduce, overproduce. In the end, people wear clothes for just like two weeks, and then just discard them. The waste doesn’t end up in America. Ultimately it ends up here in Kantamanto.”

“Do not hide under the guise of donations”

The upcycling work of traders at Katamanto is not enough to reduce the glut of clothing created by America’s addiction to fast fashion. It is estimated that 40 percent of all the clothing bales sent to Ghana end up in landfills.

And some of the unsold clothing washes out to beaches when it rains, creating massive tangled webs called “tentacles” in the sand.

screenshot-2021-09-16-at-16-13-52.png
CBS NEWS

The director of waste management for the Accra Metropolitan Assembly, Solomon Noi, delivered a message to the U.S.: “Deal with it.”

“Do not hide under the guise of donations of secondhand clothing, and then you ship them over to us just to cause problems to us,” he said.

Source: CBS
Via: norvanreports
Tags: Accra Metropolitan AssemblyFast fashion in the U.S. is fueling an environmental disaster in GhanaghanaKatamantoOR FoundationUnited States
No Result
View All Result

Highlights

Top 10 African Countries With The Least Recovery in GDP From the COVID Year to 2025

GSE Ends Thursday’s Session Higher as Market Capitalisation Gains GHS 2bn

President Mahama’s Speech as he Addresses Nation After Military Helicopter Crash [Full Text]

President Mahama Pledges Full, Transparent Probe into August 6 Military Helicopter Crash

State Funeral for Victims of Military Helicopter Crash Scheduled for August 15 – President Mahama

Black Box of Crashed Military Helicopter Recovered – Ashanti Regional Minister Confirms

Trending

Features

CHAN 2024: Kenya Holds Angola to Draw While DR Congo Claims Vital Win Over Zambia

August 8, 2025

CHAN 2024: Kenya Holds Angola to Draw While DR Congo Claims Vital Win Over Zambia The TotalEnergies...

Teen Sensation Victoria Mboko Stuns Naomi Osaka to Claim Maiden WTA 1000 Title at Canadian Open

August 8, 2025

Government Unveils Plan to Grow Textile and Garment Industry to $2bn by 2033

August 8, 2025

Top 10 African Countries With The Least Recovery in GDP From the COVID Year to 2025

August 8, 2025

GSE Ends Thursday’s Session Higher as Market Capitalisation Gains GHS 2bn

August 8, 2025

Who we are?

NORVANREPORTS.COM |  Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World

NorvanReports is a unique data, business, and financial portal aimed at providing accurate, impartial reporting of business news on Ghana, Africa, and around the world from a truly independent reporting and analysis point of view.

© 2020 Norvanreports – credible news platform.
L: Hse #4 3rd Okle Link, Baatsonaa – Accra-Ghana T:+233-(0)26 451 1013 E: news@norvanreports.com info@norvanreports.com
All rights reserved we display professionalism at all stages of publications

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
    • Agribusiness
    • Aviation
    • Energy
    • Insurance
    • Manufacturing
    • Real Estate
    • Maritime
    • Tourism
    • Transport
    • Banking & Finance
    • Trade
    • Markets
  • Economy
  • Reports
  • Technology
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Cyber-security
    • Social Media
    • Tech-guide
    • Telecom
  • Features
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
  • Lifestyle
    • Entertainment
    • Sports
    • Travel
    • Environment
    • Weather
  • NRTV
    • Audio
    • Video

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
NORVANREPORTS.COM | Business News, Insurance, Taxation, Oil & Gas, Maritime News, Ghana, Africa, World
This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.