T e x t i l e I n d u s t r y N e w s o n r e u s e , r e c y c l i n g a n d c i r c u l a r i t y

How the myth of Africas textile waste crisis is destroying a global circular system

SPECIAL REPORT

From a distance, it looks like mountains of discarded clothing.

That image has travelled the world. Repeated, amplified and turned into a defining narrative about textile waste in Africa, with real consequences for policy, the environment and millions of people. But when we went there, the picture changed completely. Our investigation into the claims about the mountains of textile waste in African countries revealed a deeper and more troubling story: how a narrative built on surprisingly limited evidence came to shape some of today's most important discussions on textiles, waste and circularity.

From a distance, it looks like mountains of discarded clothing. That image has travelled the world. Repeated, amplified and turned into a defining narrative about textile waste in Africa, with real consequences for policy, the environment and millions of people.
But when we went there, the picture changed completely.

The global second-hand trade is not a charity system. It is a business built on buying, sorting, shipping and reselling products across continents. Every bale imported into Ghana has already passed through collectors, sorters, exporters, shipping companies, customs, wholesalers and traders. At every stage, somebody pays.

Where is the business model for exporting textile waste?

Reuse News spent more than a year investigating the assumption about exports of textile waste. We found no documented business model, no economic incentives

and no clear evidence explaining how such a trade is supposed to work. Yet, the theory is increasingly influencing international policy and regulation.