How global textile flows are testing Africa’s circular economy

From the newsletter

A recent visit by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a British NGO, to Dandora dumpsite, one of Africa’s largest, has documented mounting piles of discarded textiles. The findings highlight a broader continental challenge, as rising secondhand clothing imports from the Global North strain local waste systems and hinder Africa’s circular economy ambitions.

• Sub-Saharan Africa generates an estimated 5.8 million tonnes of textile waste each year, a figure increasingly linked to the influx of low-quality secondhand clothing originating from Western fast fashion chains.

• In countries such as Ghana and Kenya, as much as 50 percent of imported used clothing is reportedly unsellable, with rejected garments diverted to landfills, open burning and waterways.

More details

• The findings in Dandora reflect the reality across African cities, where secondhand clothing imports are exposing the limits of the continent’s circular economy systems. The strain extends beyond rising volumes to whether existing reuse markets, waste infrastructure and regulatory frameworks can absorb a shift in the quality and composition of what is being imported.

• For decades, secondhand clothing markets across Africa have extended garment lifecycles and supported informal livelihoods, a system that functions when garments are durable and resellable. But traders increasingly report that a growing share of imported bales contains low-quality or damaged items. In Kantamanto Market, one of Africa’s largest secondhand clothing hubs, weekly arrivals of an estimated 15 million garments include a substantial proportion of poor-quality items, with traders suggesting that 30-40% are effectively waste rather than viable resale stock. When a significant portion of shipments cannot be sold, reuse networks begin to operate as sorting points for global surplus. This weakens circularity, which depends on product longevity and multiple use cycles. As quality declines, the reuse phase shortens and disposal accelerates.

• With a significant share of imported secondhand clothing ultimately becoming waste, pressure shifts to municipal systems that are already ill-equipped to manage textile-heavy waste streams. Many African cities are still grappling with basic collection coverage and landfill management, prioritising high-volume organic and plastic waste over textiles, which are often treated as a residual category. Most urban centres lack dedicated textile recycling facilities, and synthetic garments carry limited residual value for informal waste pickers. Materials that cannot be profitably recovered accumulate in dumpsites, are openly burned or enter waterways. The environmental costs are localised, even though production and initial consumption occur elsewhere.

• The regulatory architecture governing these flows further complicates matters. Under the Basel Convention, hazardous waste shipments require prior informed consent. Secondhand clothing, however, is typically classified as reusable goods rather than waste. This distinction allows large volumes of low-grade textiles to cross borders without the scrutiny applied to waste exports. Once unsellable garments enter local markets, they are reclassified in practice, if not on paper, as municipal waste. The gap between trade definitions and on-the-ground outcomes places strain on countries attempting to build coherent circular economy strategies.

• Financial responsibility remains equally unsettled. Exporting countries and global brands benefit from clearing surplus inventory and sustaining narratives of reuse, while importing countries absorb the costs of sorting, disposal and environmental remediation. In the European Union (EU), revisions to the Waste Framework Directive agreed in 2023 require member states to introduce separate collection of textiles by 2025 and to establish extended producer responsibility schemes, making brands financially responsible for the collection and recycling of textile waste within the EU. However, these frameworks are primarily designed around domestic waste streams and do not yet address how producer obligations should apply when garments are exported and subsequently become waste abroad.

• These tensions are increasingly surfacing at the global policy level. On the International Day of Zero Waste inMarch 2025, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and partners highlighted that unsustainable fashion and growing textile waste are placing mounting pressure on waste systems, particularly in lower-income countries where discarded clothing frequently ends up in landfills or open dumps. The statement called for circular economy approaches that prioritise sustainable production, reuse and repair.

• Momentum intensified in discussions during the lead-up to the seventh session of the United Nations Environment Assembly in Nairobi in December 2025. Discussions linked fast fashion, overproduction and declining garment quality with mounting waste pressures in importing countries, reinforcing concerns that reuse alone cannot deliver meaningful circularity without improvements in product design, durability and end-of-life responsibility.

• In response, UNEP has launched the Circularity and Used Textile Trade Project, a global initiative funded by the European Union to advance the sustainability of the secondhand clothing trade. The programme is working with partner countries including Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan and Tunisia to inform and develop policy, financing, investment and regulatory priorities for trade reforms that support circularity in textiles. Central to the project is the development of global criteria and a guideline to help distinguish between used textiles that can continue in reuse markets and products that should be treated as waste. 

Our take

• Across Africa, waste reform often begins with projects, yet Morocco’s trajectory shows lasting change depends on anchoring reform in institutions, financing structures and municipal capacity so systems function beyond project cycles.

• This suggests the continent’s waste challenge is less about technology gaps and more about governance depth, financial design and the ability to turn short term interventions into enduring public service systems.