Post-Consumer Textile Waste in Kantamanto Market - Accra, Ghana

Written by Enna Uwaifo

In 2023, I embarked on a research trip to Accra, Ghana, where I engaged informal workers in Kantamanto Market in my masters research project for my MSc in Global Development and Environment. This trip was partially funded through the Opportunity Bristol Scholarship award.

Here are some key findings:

Ghanaian second-hand market traders are not being paid for waste service provision when they should be paid.

My Primary Research Findings directly from Kantamanto Market:

• Africa, particularly Ghana, is a “net creditor” in the second-hand fashion trade.

• Waste management of textile waste is being outsourced to Ghana, accelerating environmental crises in Accra due to unmanageable waste influx.

• Ghana, a low-income, developing country, lacks the necessary funding and capacity to handle this waste.

• The narrative that donating clothes to the global south is a form of aid is misleading and harmful.

• However, informal traders expressed very little interest in moving towards different and/or formalised work. They want a better product rather than to stop trading.

Evidence :

• Solomon Noi, Head of Waste Management in Accra, highlights that 40% of incoming clothing is waste.

• Kpone landfill commissioned in 2013, set to last 25 years, reached full capacity and caught on fire - uncontrolled textile waste is flooding the waste management system leading environmental crisis

Invention of an Environmental Crisis

Impact on Ghana:

• The Global North (UK, EU, Canada) benefits financially, making £100 million+ per year by selling textile waste mixed in with second-hand clothing and are increasing prices for bales and make up the majority of incoming textile waste.

• The trade exploits local beliefs that “nothing is waste” due to a vast second-hand market for many products.

• Chinese and Korean imports add to the competitive pressures in Kantamanto market but sell cheaper so there is less of financial burden on informal traders.

• Environmental and social costs are borne by Accra, from landfill fires to water contamination and micro-plastics in the ocean.

Economic and Environmental Consequences:

• Landfills fill up quickly, leading to fires and increased costs.

• Local communities suffer from health and environmental issues.

• Informal waste pickers and fishermen face reduced income opportunities due to the overwhelming textile waste.

Calls for socio-economic and environmental justice :

• Recognition that the economic deficit from this trade causes uneven development and environmental crises.

• The OR Foundation’s #STOPWASTECOLONIALISM campaign advocates for EU global accountable investment into Ghana’s waste management through Extended Producer Responsibility.

• Waste-to-resource start-ups as pathways to economic justice and indigenous inclusion.