The environmental disaster fuelled by used clothes and fast fashion | Foreign Correspondent
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ส.ค. 2021
- The dark side of the world’s fashion addiction. Many of our old clothes, donated
to charities, end up in rotting textile mountains in West Africa. This is a story
about how our waste is creating an environmental disaster.
Have you ever thought about what happens to your old clothes after you drop them off at the
op shop? It might be time to start, because these goodwill gestures are helping to fuel an environmental catastrophe on the other side of the world.
When charities in Australia can’t sell donated clothing, tonnes of it ends up being exported to
countries like Ghana, in West Africa. Ship after ship docks every week with bales from Europe,
the US, China and Australia.
They call them ‘Dead White Man’s Clothes’. Once they arrive in Ghana, they’re taken to the
bustling Kantamanto markets in the capital Accra and from here, they make their way to
villages and towns across the country.
The industry provides jobs for thousands of people, like Asare Asamoah, a successful importer.
He brings in clothes, mainly from the United Kingdom, and if they’re good quality, he can make
a decent living.
But it’s risky business. He has to pay upfront for a bale and never knows whether it’s trash or
treasure. With cheap, fast fashion flooding the world, the quality of the clothes arriving in
Ghana is getting worse and worse.
‘Sometimes you’ve gone and bought something, then you don’t get what you want’, says
Asamoah. ‘Then you lose your money.”
And there’s a dark side to this industry.
Correspondent Linton Besser travels to Ghana to uncover the dirty secret behind the world’s
fashion addiction.
While 60 per cent of imported fashion items are reused and resold, 40 per cent are rubbish,
creating an environmental catastrophe for this poor nation.
With the main dumpsite for textile waste now full, unregulated dumpsites ring the city. These
fetid clothes mountains are often set on fire, filling the skies with acrid smoke.
‘It is totally a disservice to us in this part of the world because we have become sort of the
dumping ground for the textile waste that is produced from Europe, from the Americas”, says
Accra’s waste manager, Solomon Noi.
Emmanuel Ajaab imports used clothes from Australia but he despairs at the poor quality of the
clothes that arrive. From a bale of about 200 garments, he finds only seven he can resell at a
good price.
“In Europe and UK and Australia, America, they think Africa here, sorry to say, we are not like a
human being”, he tells Foreign Correspondent.
The dumped textiles also get swept up in the monsoonal rains and end up choking the city’s
waterways and beaches, posing a danger to fishermen and aquatic life. Liz Ricketts, who runs
an NGO campaigning for awareness of Ghana's textile waste crisis, lays the blame at the feet
of international fashion houses.
“Waste is a part of the business model of fashion. A lot of brands overproduce by up to 40 per
cent”, says Ricketts.
Noi begs the people who donate their clothes to think twice about where they end up.
“If they come here, like you've come, and you see the practicality for yourself, then they will
know that, no, we better take care of these things within our country and not to ship that
problem to cause problems to other people.”
About Foreign Correspondent:
Foreign Correspondent is the prime-time international public affairs program on Australia's national broadcaster, ABC-TV. We produce half-hour duration in-depth reports for broadcast across the ABC's television channels and digital platforms. Since 1992, our teams have journeyed to more than 170 countries to report on war, natural calamity and social and political upheaval - through the eyes of the people at the heart of it all.
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One thing I’ve learned from this pandemic is that, I don’t need as much clothes as I have.
So you came to the realisation that Edward Bernays manipulated your mind... Good for you
When going to a work place we wear clothes for each other. At home, just for ourselves.
Me Either, I don't have, but 5 days worth of cloths. I hand wash them and hang to dry, they last longer.
I down size and donated mine I do my laundry every five days and reuse them.
I have realised exactly the same. I need a good clean out. Soo many clothes I don't wear and I will give them to a charity. I'd rather give them to people who really need clothing for free. All in great condition and some not used. It shows how much my life is different from a lot of people like in this video and other places
Can we all agree that the traditional clothing is far more beautiful and well made.
Greetings to you & your family, yes you are absolutely right.
One Love.
Yes I totally agree. And so sad that this influx of imported clothing is destroying the market for it.
Big disagree.
Afghan women will be getting lots of traditional clothing again.
You mean traditional American clothing.
I am from Eritrea 🇪🇷 east africa. Despite the dictatorship regime with very limit human right in the country, & with very low 2 billion USD DGP in comparing Ghana's DGP 76 billion USD. Eritrea is one of the poorest country, but also one of the cleanest country in the world. The 1000 km eritrean red sea is one of the cleanest sea in the world. You may ask How this can be possible? There are rules. Plastic bags & packages are banned. If you go to shopping you have to have any permanent bag to use or you have to buy from the shop paper bag. And the people are helpful they're clean, they dont littered. Second the gov. Doesn't allowed importation which can damaging the environment, even cars are not allowed to import older than 8 years. the country is also not accepting any aid from foreign countries including Europe and USA.
Sad. I work at a thrift store and I'm disgusted at the amount of stuff people buy and throw away. Equally frustrating is the crap that does get donated, dirty, stained, ripped, smelly clothes, ripped up moldy books, boxes covered in rat and cockroach shit, other items broken and unusable to anybody, etc, and we basically end up throwing there trash away for them. We will even give what we can away for free, but the amount of trash, ugh. I can't stand this fast cheap fashion and low quality clothes that's everywhere now, quality so bad that after a first use and wash is no good anymore. Then what we sell for very cheap everyone wants it for cheaper, it's disgusting, and I would say at the very least half if not more of the customer are reselling it. I don't have a problem with resellers but many want it for cheap or free and are super pushy. I bust my ass all day long and it's not worth it dealing with customers and donations of trash.
Wow.
Thanks for what you do. It’s really unsung work and you are appreciated.
the guy in the video tossed away a shirt with a small stain. i guess they dont have soap. later a women finds perfectly good jeans in the trash. many of us have to pay a lot for rags to clean gras and mess. nobody points out the careless that toss there clothes in the street and pollute there own area. look what these pope do in white countries when they get upset. they destroy there own neighborhoods. i dont feel sorry for these people at all. i want to stay far away from people with no impulse control.
I feel your pain. I helped organize once a free clothes shop where people could just take, leave or swap clothes. People would donate tons of stuff, most almost new; and even brand stuff like polo shirts and loewe handbags. All very clean and in good condition, so no complaints there.
But visitors would only want to inquire about dropping stuff, and not even take a second to browse, even tho we had everthing very neatly arranged and offered free drinks. It was a kinda posh/gentrified neighbourghood, so I felt like people though of us an excuse to dropp off the clothes they were bored with, in order to have closet space to just go out and buy more. In the end, only the organizers and a couple of people picked up something; and the rest we donated to a woman's shelter.
I work in repossessed mobile homes... you would be amazed at what people will buy and discard instead of keeping up their payments 😢😢😢....
Best line I've ever heard:
Better to fix the problem within the country rather than ship the problems somewhere else.
except when you say that about illegal aliens, the leftist start screaming and calling you a bad person.
No kidding....
@@magnetarattractionsno9643 Who are you saying wants to ship the problem somewhere else? Sounds exactly like the right to me. Either don't let them in, or ship them away and its all ok.
@@trachyte11 you are confused, and no i am not going to illuminate you, it wont work. you will project whatever meaning you want, in lieu of what i am actually saying.
But in this case, these guys are actually buying those containers. It's not like they are shipping to them by force.
We never had this problem before manufacturing in China developed. Clothes were much more expensive pre 80’s, far better quality too. Many People made their own clothes back then. The problem is overproduction of cheap goods today, it’s all low quality so you throw it out after a few years.
Only if you buy that crap in the first place.
Tan Oz: It wouldn't be as bad if they didn't charge so much for the clothes.The re-sellers have to be choosy what they sell because they don't have money to waste.
They pay more for their used clothes in Ghana than what I pay at the local resale shop here in the states.
Almost everything that is manufactured is not recycled and goes into a waste stream of some kind. Some metals and some plastic are recycled. Some fabric is recycled. Most furniture goes in the landfill and torned down buildings including the concrete. Like the twin towers. More people more waste!
Honest question why do we put China first in describing this instead of something more like “Before the USA moved manufacturing to China because it was cheaper”? I actually haven’t considered it before
You can't solely blame the supplier when the consumer demands a product.
In my building we have a window on the ground floor, where people leave stuff (sometimes food, too) they do not need/want, so anyone can take it. I prefer to leave clothes I would donate there (second hand shops are ridiculously expensive where I live, and the clothes are just...bad). If no one takes it, I take it back (but someone always takes it). I also try not to buy unnecessary stuff.
You can ask people in your community if they want it - friends, family, or give it away through some site.
BEDBUGS and diseases.
That's good and all, but at some point the cloths becomes to old and un-wearable and it will be thrown away regardless. You are just prolonging the inevitable
My friend and I were just talking about our parents generation doing things right. They recycled better than now. They sewed holes in socks not run out and buy a six.pack more.
At a Goodwill outlet in my city, there are bins full of donated clothing that's sold by the pound ($1.60/lb). It's a great place to find affordable clothes if you are actually lucky enough to find something that's in good condition and also fits you.
@@drock213 The poster is doing the right thing by producing as little waste as possible (and saving money). Why do you say the oh so obvious "it will be thrown away regardless"? Everything is thrown away when it is no good, what else would you do? Keep it forever?
I don’t support fast fashion. I’d rather buy something that is good quality and I will keep it for several years. We all need to do our part.
None of my family does, people who feel compelled to buy that crap should see what the consequences are of "fast fashion" and develop their own sense of style that respects craftsmanship and longevity..
Seriously! I want quality too! Hey, clothes makers, I won’t buy your crappy polyester blends!
While that sure is the case, we certainly need our politicians to act and change the system. As long as it's profitable for the companies and cheap for the people, there most likely won't be any changes
Except almost nobody will. That's the problem with that idealism. It will never, ever happen, so other options must be considered.
Fast fashion pieces can most definitely hold up for several years though. What your average person deems “good quality” is still fast fashion. The problem is where your clothes end up once their shelf life has expired. We are all “doing our part” and it’s not enough. Only way out is through regulation of mass fashion corporations.
It's more *profitable* for charity shops to sell these clothes to poorer countries than to pay for waste disposal here. They're a scandal and a scam - which truly is a shame, because they started out actually doing something positive for people.
The poorer countries don't have to buy it.
nobody forces them to buy anything
No scandal
If charities keep everything,be tons in store & you may lose your 4 kids in bundles
@@sinephase and nobody FORCES people in the US to buy new stuff every season...
It's a choice that's led to this level of garbage and waste....
I hope the Fashion industry collapses some day...
We need to stop buying new clothes every year because some Fashion Designer tells them to.....
Bunch of sheep and slaves....
@@mruncletheredge the US can handle the waste, the problem is they got buyers for it, here is when the problem starts.
No one forced these people to import these clothes, they could always manufacture their own. There is a thousand ways to reuse the clothes not fit for wearing. Wash them, cut them up and create carpets, curtains, sleeping mats, bags, hats, insulation materials, nappies etc to name a few.
Furthermore, we need only a few outfits and not hundreds.
Agreed .
Why don't you do all what you say in England or Australia and not sent all the garbage to Africa?
You could also buy less clothes in the west to reduce this problem rather then making them feel bad for not doing things properly
@@Laurod24or make the clothes manufacturers responsible for recycling them.
Exactly. Notice how all responsibility is always removed from black people? Their corrupt leaders are the one doing this.
I'm shook! This is so awful on so many levels! It's sad that at the same time that these imported clothes have been providing income for so many in Ghana, the whole process is an environmental disaster everywhere along the way, - from the terrible pollution of waterways, and people in the fast fashion industry, (all the chemicals they are exposed to and horrific working conditions, in countries like Bangladesh, which sadly completely depend on the industry), to the shipping of these clothes all over the world, to then be sold to us, then discarded, even when we think we are doing good donating them to charities, that then ship them to Africa (and Chile), for all this horrific dystopian reality as we have seen in the documentary just now. SO MUCH WASTE!! All the contamination generated by the shipping, then the discarding, hours away by truck, the sea filled with the clothes, the suffering aquatic life and all it's associated problems, the beaches ruined, the landfill, the burning of the clothes, -which can do no good for the people there breathing in not only the smoke but all those acrid chemicals. And the whole place just looks scummy and awful for those people to have to live in. And then after all that, the waste is increasing and the people are suffering more, as now they are not even making money in many cases, like the lady with her baby and the importer who got the bale from Australia. This is so disgusting! How as a human race have we not addressed these problems??! It's shameful. There must be some industry that can use all the waste clothes for something useful, insulation, tiles, Other clothes, I don't know. Maybe there are several. But there must be something, so that all the waste clothes could be used in a healthy way, no longer in landfill and still creating jobs and money for these people.
Failed to mention who is sending those clothes to Africa.
Tax exempt charities. The same charities that we here in Australia are led to believe that our donations go towards helping impoverished people here at home.
Noone in Australia donates used materials believing it will end up in Africa.
We are being misled.
Most if not all of the western world not just Oz, UK, USA, most of Europe! & the Africans are sending it back themselves by the barrel
agree they need to stop sending all these donations to Africa
bit like our household recycling deception that had up until recently been offloaded into China and Indonesia.
A key factor to see that this is a shit story, is that they have to mention 'white man's clothes' ...it's an extraneous detail, but words to incite emotion
Not true, these donation and charity shops all sell bulk clothes to rag houses in Australia that then export them to Africa
My grandma used to cut out aunts used clothes and make clothes for us. Then the leftovers would be made into the crazy quilt
Do you still have any of those quilts? Those are the real treasures!!!❤️
Mine too. I wish I'd asked for one of her quilts. I remember how heavy they were.
I was just thinking about that
My grandma was in the American dust bowl… they made clothes out of things like flour and sugar sacks. The sacks even sometimes intentionally had clothes-like patterns because of this trend.
Yep still have my two patchwork quilts.
Yikes! I'm over here refusing to do squats and lunges cuz my left knee hurts. But there's a woman here, carrying he baby, and balancing like 50 pounds of clothing on he head and walking casually. TF is wrong with me.
Quite enlightening documentary. Thank you for producing this. The fashion industry contributes so much to environmental decline. They overproduce by 40%? That's ridiculous. When I was growing up in the United States in the 1980's, the biggest social faux pas was to wear the same clothes twice within a week. Some aimed to not wear the same clothes twice, ever. I hope subsequent generations are changing to realize how much of a waste that is. I personally wear my clothes until they're ripped. I then donate to charity. If anything, I hope the cloth from my attire can be repurposed as blankets, curtains or other materials.
I'm still wearing things from when I was 15 and 16 years old... I'm almost 29. I will wear it until it has holes and then I will sew those holes. I grew up in a town of extreme poverty, and I was taught the values of using what you had. I met many snotty kids who made fun of me in school. I usually stay to myself even to this day. Fast fashion makes no sense to me. I get most everything from thrift stores and I wear it until there's no thread left. If I've gotten a brand new article of clothing, it will last me the rest of my life. Everything I have is precious to me.
You must be very skinny
I've had some of my clothes for the last 10 years and still wear them. If they get small holes I wear them for yard work. My weight goes up and down so I keep them all
You are a strong and determined woman, those are great values to live by!
Same here. I was a bit fatter at my teenage yrs and lost it afterwords. But now im gaining weight. Even tailors don't do canvassing anymore. They all do press.
I am a 61 year old woman and I still wear clothes from the mid 80's! Still fit them and still wear them! No shoulder pad puffy sleeve clown fashions, but real nice clothes and I always get women asking "where did you get that, it is so cute or so classic I can not find such nice clothes anymore"! Even being older they still fit and are still age appropriate... I am thin and petite and they look just as good as they did then...
When I first learnt about this, I never donated my clothes again. Instead I took up sewing, so whatever peices I don't want to wear anymore I tear up and make new items I do like.
Great idea
Hey, good idea!!
Yes, there's just so many ways to be consciously creative about saving all that energy & resource that is uselessly squandered.
What about quilts? What about some kind of cleaning rags, or sanitized diapers even. There could be rugs made. Thanks for the uplifting comment.
I do the same thing and do not and will not make unnecessary purchases anymore. Thanks for the new knowledge that I now have.
They are buying the garbage clothes. No one is shoving down their throats.
I heard about this probably like 20 years ago, the only things I'll buy brand new are socks and underwear. Everything else is second hand because I don't mind it and it does help my wallet and our mom, this planet that provides us with everything we NEED in order to live...
Yup. Occasionally I'll have to get something new, but only every few years. Like jeans if I can't find used ones, but if you launder carefully, clothes can last decades. People also wash their jeans way too much. Levi recommends hanging them and if you're not getting them word-dirty, washing them like 2 to 4 times a year. People also use way too much soap. 1/4 to 1/3 what's recommended is enough unless you have really hard water.
thats about it for me too. someone else above said he only owns 4 sets of foot wear and thats what i have too. mud boots, hunting boots, sneakers, and flip flops.
@@MrSGL21 oh yeah! I forgot to mention comfy shoes! I have a similar approach when it comes to footwear. 🤙
I fell victim to the fashion industry for the vast majority of my life. What I finally learned is that plain, humble clothing is the best message you can send. You will save resources that you can deploy elsewhere while remaining humble and avoiding pride.
Big fast money is being made by hustling and reselling, bit what you're talking about is deep. You are totally correct in your new thinking!
So the business men there are buying it from countries then dumping what they don’t want….
Yep and blaming white men of course like the title of the video indicates.
They buy them from our charity collections. I stopped shopping and giving away my stuff.
@@Saratoga123 When its actually women who use the most clothes and throw it away
I can remember when it was a big deal to buy a new outfit, because clothes were expensive!! These days, you can buy junk for cheap at the dollar store or the swap meet, wear it a few times, and then toss it when it goes out of style or the elastic gives out. It's easy to blame the consumer for buying this crap...but poor people want to stay in style too, especially given the emphasis placed on style and fashion on social media. Our values are totally jacked! Better to spend a bit for a quality piece and wear it until it truly gives out...fashion be damned.
This is why I buy high-quality vintage clothes because something that is aesthetically pleasing will always be beautiful for more than decades. Trendy fashion be damned.
I sew and repurpose clothing.
Same, I will buy something fancy without “fashion”, that I can wear for years.
I used to wonder what the "Goodwill Stores" would do with clothes that no one wants...
... Here's the answer
Fancy seeing you here miss Hussy! Keep up the great work we appreciate you!
Interestingly when I was last in Ghana nobody there called them 'Dead white men's clothes' except for reporters or activists who were looking for a 'cause'.
i think it's appalling
Thank you!
The fact that this is a headline by a major corporation proves they will be racist if you let them…
@Red Mustang 1976 they make it seems like there are only white people in Europe, Australia, USA...
"Get whitey" ABCIA NBCIA CIABS MSNBCIA CIANN
In 2023 I will sincerely make an effort to buy less in general , and make what I do buy more deliberate. Watching these types of videos is extremely eye opening for me, and definitely make me reflect on what’s really important.
God forgive me not being grateful for everything I have to see people going thru this fighting over used clothing just breaks my heart.
It seems that your god has left the building 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Old clothes were used as manure for the fields here in the UK and elsewhere. They would rot down and decompose and, because they were of natural materials like wool cotton and linen they would enrich the soil. Artificial man-made fabrics of course are another story.
I was wondering why they didn’t have little old ladies sorting out the cotton and wool discards for fertilizer or at least to burn. The natural fabric wouldn’t release toxins. This is Ghana’s issue to deal with. The documentary blames the Western countries. Ghana doesn’t have to accept these shipments.
@@marcwright4790 Thank you!!!
@@marcwright4790 yep honestly this documentary is contradictory. They don’t have to accept these shipments that also provide a potential stop before the landfill vs not shipping them out and Immediately throwing everything away. I think they are angry that the quality is worse more than anything which is a combination of likely fast fashion with poor quality fabric and the rise of secondhand shopping in the west.
@@marcwright4790 the ways we soothe our souls...
Rule of thumb when donating, noting stained, torn, threadbare. If it’s not good, throw it away, please.
I believe that this so called "used clothes" are donations and the intention is to "donate" to those in need and not to sell to the market.
But the Ghana people are paying for these bales of clothes also and selling them on?
@@Rayblondie When virtue signaling racism is in progress, the real FACTS don't seem to matter...Apparently, according to MSM, only white people donate clothes...And, of COURSE they figure out a way to make it bad...
What a ridiculous and racist title- I’m not white but even I find it insulting. Why are these media idiots so quick to use racist slurs against only white people?
Because they are pretending to be the heralds of truth and justice, yet they are vipers in the tall grass
@@vinitbhatia4685 Like another poster previously pointed out; To get CLICKS; They don't care if they are from everyone HATING THIS BS; But, the ad revenue from the clicks themselves...
They can't figure out how to not litter excess clothes all over their town? Wtf?
PSA, stop buying fast fashion, develop your own style, buy clothing that lasts and you only need few clothing anyway.
I wear clothes til it falls apart. Anything like T shirt, flannel, etc gets cut up and used for cleaning rags.
Same here. I literally wear my clothes and shoes until they are full of holes. Then I used them as rags or throw them away.
Same here
Same! I almost never go clothing shopping unless i absolutely have to
This is my new inspiration
@@ralphfurley4217 Most of my t-shirt i got when i was 18, and i'm 31 now. FRUIT OF THE LOOM band tshirts last forever :)
I buy most clothes from second-hand shops, Salvation Army, Goodwill, private owned Thrift Stores. I've seen huge piles of unsellable clothing at Goodwill, being readied for shipment to third world countries. A lot of it was stained or torn. One man in the video said it was insulting to get those kinds of clothing and he's right. Things not wearable should be recycled into cleaning rags, quilt pieces, etc., HERE, before it's shipped out. We have an excess of clothing in the U.S. and we shouldn't be sending un-wearables to these countries. We're the reason for the textile waste over there.
exactly. why send to charities clothes that are unwearable??? and another thing, they are smelly maybe because they were not washed before taking them to charity stores. donators or givers, think that what you give away or donate should be happily worn by the takers
@@rosetui6070 many charities wash the clothes where I live before selling them. Anyway-- the ones shipped to this place they are showing should be washed and restyled or made into quilts whatever-- creates jobs and a respectable living. Look at how many everyday people are doing this on pintrest, etc.
I think these people who are putting these potentially great things into a landfill have no business complaining about being poor.
@@rosetui6070 mother of 4 i was shopping thrift before it became fashionable & never donated anything I or children wouldn't wear
So true. If it is stained or looks raggedy and I wouldn't wear ot because of that, I throw it in the rag pile, and don't expect someone else to wear it either. I too, shop used for most of my clothes. I was raised like that. We were poor and got teased for wearing used stuff but I am not ashamed. I was never allowed to wear jeans with the holes like are in style now. They were patched or cut into shorts or made into rags. We were poor but had dignity, and were taught to let others have their dignity as well. Giving torn, holey, or stained clothes to someone else is not showing dignity to them. They might not have money but at least let them have their dignity. If a person wants to run around in pants with holes, let them buy them and wear them. But please don't throw rags to people who don't have any other choice but to accept what is offered to them. It is then not an act of human kindness or compassion. Everyone deserves to have dignity.
People should not donate soiled, ripped and worn out clothing.
There's a Big Brothers Big Sisters clothing donation bin near me where I drop off clothes. I learned recently that's one of the organizations Savers/Value Village buys donations from (Yup. The way they describe it is the non-profits are given money for donations. But donating and buying from VV doesn't help non-profits.) All the clothing deemed unsellable here is sent to Africa. Yeesh. I'm donating directly to a shelter from now on.
@Cinzabeary - I'm sorry I can't remember the name but, in most cities, there's a NP that gathers professional clothing to help men & women who are trying to get back to or just getting into the job market. Many organizations will train people for the job market but, if you don't have the right wardrobe for even an interview, how can you get the job!? So, if you do have professional clothing (think suits, pant suits, nice dresses, even shoes) that one would where for say an office job or working retail, please talk to people in your city & find an organization that does this kind of help. If you have more (how do I say this right?) a working man or woman's clothes, I'd suggest starting out by calling the closest vo-tech school. There are people in every field that need a little help now days though. Bless you for doing the research about what happens in your area & finding a way to really help those who are trying to make a good life!
Even with shelters, a lot of the staff takes the good stuff and leaves the crappy pieces. The same with Goodwill or thrift shops
@@teekolinski491 No they don't. Not really, anyways. Employees have to wait 2 days for an item to be on the sales floor before they can buy it. There have been things I've wanted and never got to get because it was already bought by someone by then. What really drives me nuts is that I see the same people in the store, all day, every single day loading up their carts. We recognize them as resellers. They go up and down the aisles picking out whatever they deem worthy of upselling online. However we can't kick them out because they're spending so much at the store. It's been a bit of problem for other thrift stores, though, so much so they are starting to refuse to sell to those they suspect, or have found reselling their purchases on eBay and other auction/collectible sites. Crazy, eh?
I know this household doesn't contribute to this problem. We grew up appreciating what little we had and we have continued to think that way. When I buy a couple shirts and jeans I wear them till they are rags. Then we use the wore out clothes to clean with. We were given 1 planet yet we have destroyed it.
I wear clothes till they're literally falling apart. Most of my shirts, and shorts are from 2008-2015. Only when my clothes can't be fixed with a sewing kit do I buy anything new.
My mum still buy clothes…
Me too! But my family tell me I smell bad and have stopped speaking to me.😵
What's worst, clothing dry rots after a while.
@@joytothworld what is that ???
I too have a wardrobe full of clothes and I decided a couple years ago to try to wear all of it till it has become too old then I wear it on my allotment or to do dirty jobs in and now watching this I’m feeling proud that I do just that
My mom always made sure the clothes that we donated were in prime condition and washed. Can't believe others didn't share that idea.
but other people might be as well. The people in ghana looking for particular styles and fashion.
I once bought an old t-shirt at a thrift shop because it was very soft, a color that I liked, and was an anniversary memorial (from a precious decade) of an institution I had admired since I was a child. The little hole was ok, but 15 years later I had to stop wearing it because there were more holes and they were too big to be socially acceptable.
If I would not buy it at the thrift store, I sure as hell am not donating it!
@@mgd6087 Ha, it nowadays- you can go out practically naked! Look at the jeans for 125 with the tips in them!
Thats your problem then. Why aren't you wearing out cloths before buying new.
I had naively thought that the stuff that I donate, if they are not fit to use, they would be shredded and made into rags. 😢
I used to work with a guy from Ghana, we used to do deliveries. When we stopped for
Lunch he insisted that we do so by a goodwill, Salvation Army or value village.
He would come out 30 mins later with bags of clothes.
I guess he would put them in a barrel and that would go into a shipping container that would goto Ghana where his wife would sell them.
I don’t know how that works in the finances you would guess the cost of clothes plus shipping would eat into any profit in Ghana 🤷♂️
As an American dumpster diver, I used to think corporations using our dumpsters and landfills as part of their business plan was tragic. The donation stream is far more tragic 😢
Thanks. Now I learned two terrible things today.
Well, its gotta go somewhere.
@@outkast187 bro, humans need to get off the consumption train.
@@outkast187 wrong. Corporations do not need to factor in 1/3 of their inventory gets put into landfills so they can sell 2/3
@BARDLEG it's a lifestyle
"Recycling" is mostly a big fat lie.
So true
Always has been.
It's to make people feel good
Correctly done recycling is something we do need and should be innovated further than it is now. This is really not recycling as we can see. But for example some metals are recycled well already even though not perfectly. So there is of course still space for improvement.
And about textiles, of course we should get rid of the fast fashion mindset but that is really not enough anymore as there are so many textiles in this world already. So we should also innovate real ways to recycle textiles in a big scale even though it is hard.
Everyone forgets the first part--reduce, reuse. This isn't recycling; it's more reuse. BUT it's clearly a failure on that note.
It beggars belief that for all the years aid has flooded to Africa there's still a problem. I know a man from Ghana who lives in the UK, he has a UK partner, they've 3 children. He has another wife or two in Ghana whose children arrive in the UK and get educated. He's building a large house in Ghana and he takes van loads of stuff there regularly.
Instead of throwing them away, the good parts of the clothes can be cut, dyed (if need be) and sewn into new clothes. Less will be thrown away then. Other parts can go into cleaning cloths for cars and workshops.
Who will give you water , place and labour for all this ? Better get rid of them.
@@vishalmore7154 It's a good place to start. I know of companies that upcycle stuff like this. Bring ideas not negativity. Where there is a will there is a way.
the point is that labor to produce new clothes is less affordable than used clothes
which is why they dont produce much if anything
I'm so glad I was raised on thrift goods. To this day I find great satisfaction shopping for used clothes and other goods.
I do the same. Especially for work. I even find a few trinkets along the way.
@@renaherbert3142 it can be a treasure hunt
@@suckafree6195 indeed. Sometimes I get lucky.
@@SoWhatsNew0 I’ve never had any issues when I buy used clothes. However, I do wash them thoroughly
@@SoWhatsNew0 I usually wash the clothes I buy from the goodwill before wearing them. That's what you should do anyway.
This goes way beyond clothing. Everything made now including food is produced at an unsustainable rates. For every item that sells one is thrown away or wasted or is not used
That's better than donating it to Africa and destabilizing entire industries abroad.
I don't think it's good to ship the clothes to other countries they should just put it in the bins if they don't need it
The us produces twice as much food as it needs. God bless capitalism
Honestly not going to lie I don’t care if it goes to Africa if you don’t like the product don’t buy it.
When it comes to food in the civilized world, I think something like a third is actually eaten.
It's one of the most ignorant things i ever saw in my life. That is why I will not donate any of my clothes to those " organizations " . Here in my country we say " SÃO POBRES E MAL AGRADECIDOS ! "
Im assuming that they want the clothes to keep coming since they make a living off of it..
So rather than complaining about the hand outs that were intended to help you put clothes on your back and food on your table,
then sidecasting everything you deem yourself to good for and blaming others for the mess with little appreciation for the help that was given,
Why not be proactive and productive??
Instead of acting as though you're owed something better, maybe put in a little effort to repurpose it yourselves??
Ex: blankets, stuffing, new clothes out of old clothes, rags, etc, etc...
All you need are scissors and a sewing needle..
I agree with you. These clothes can be used in many ways and in many things like you just gave the examples. They shouldn't just through them away and burn them.
Main problem: Synthetic fibers. They are as bad as any other plastics or even worse.
Textiles of 100% natural fibers would not cause that kind of "durable toxic waste"
I remember that back in the days pure cotton or linnen textile was so valuable it was collected seperately for example for the purpose of making high quality paper. You can't do that with synthetic mixed in.
This is an unspoken topic, because synthetic materials also shed in the wash, so are the cause of so much micro plastic in our environment! The negative impact of synthetic materials is so multifaceted! :(
Exactly
Cotton also has a massive environmental impact. It takes massive amounts of water to produce and these days that water is stolen from poor people. The main problem is there are too many people.
So true. We have recycling in Portugal (Europe) for centuries. Edit: We make rugs from old clothes.
I wear the same thing everyday and weekend. Y’all think style makes you a better person? I was cloth as old as 10 years back. 2 Suits 5 black shirt 5 white shirt 3 shorts 5 pants 2 which I use daily plenty of socks and underwear. 4 pairs of shoes one pair I use daily another pair for the gym and 3 other pairs that matches my outfits and special occasion clothing. I don’t think to much what I am going to wear because I know what I am going to wear.
a lot of times the donations companies will tell us here in usa that we should donate anything at all and the good clothes will go to people in need and the bad ones will be used to recycle so most people here donating really have good intentions when they donate, they don’t do it thinking their trash clothes will go to a person.
Precisely. Now, what to do 0_0
@@sandel3516 its still worth it to send because the good clothes go to people in need but a system needs to be made for the unusable ones to be dealt with in the country of origin and not sent there
same here in China
@@theniceashley84 I think the next step should be for clothing companies to stop over producing. Over producing by 40% is ridiculous.
If you divide the clothes being donated by the number of homeless, it would come to a ton of clothes per person. There is no way it can be used that way.
The solution - use less clothes. Use them longer. Discard not becausevof fashion but because they are worn out.
7:39 50 kilos
8:21 importer risk
11:54 the day after market
14:38 to the dump
19:01 the rains
23:45 sorting a loss
24:22 the problem is
26:35 the real blame
If we don't change the way we treat our fellow humans, this world is doomed.
I literally wear my clothes and shoes until they are full of holes. Then I used them as rags or throw them away.
Same here. It's been at least 15 years or more since I bought anything new for myself except for socks and underwear.
I'm still wearing things from when I was 15 and 16 years old... I'm almost 29. I will wear it until it has holes and then I will sew those holes. I grew up in a town of extreme poverty, and I was taught the values of using what you had. I met many snotty kids who made fun of me in school. I usually stay to myself even to this day. Fast fashion makes no sense to me. I get most everything from thrift stores and I wear it until there's no thread left. If I've gotten a brand new article of clothing, it will last me the rest of my life. Everything I have is precious to me.
@@jamierupert7563 I’m imagining you rocking super old styles like they are brand new lol
@@jamierupert7563 I do the same, now I have to purchase everything new because I have recently lost over 25 kilograms.
I was going to comment the same... "White Men". Since when do we replace cloths...
Why are they paying for clothes we donated? That's not why I donate my clothes
Definitely, when I heard that I was shocked. I understand paying for the shipping eventually but it's just unacceptable for this people to have to pay that much for our used clothes
Just like the rice and grain that was donated years ago that sat in silos and rotted, cos the african government tried selling it to their people.
Ask Goodwill!
Sadly, you do not understand how capitalism works.
Many bottom feeders between the donating and the person wearing them.
What I sometimes find astonishing is the sheer amount of fast fashion items of really poor quality, people buy. Then they wear them once or twice, and after a year or two, when there is no more room in the closet, they are donated. And the cycle continues with more fast fashion.
The thing is - most western clothes today are not very nice at all. It is terrible in fabric, fit, design and overall style. This is why they don't last. Why is it we would rather waste money on 500 items of garbage items, that we hate anyways, instead of buying 50 high quality items, that cost a bit more, but would last for years to come? And give us much more peace of mind in our everyday lives.
If western countries are so wealthy - then why on earth do we insist on mass producing clothing that are so boring and low quality? Why not go for less items of higher quality?
when i was pregnant, I worked for this woman she was a ceo for a children's charity ,over sea ,she was a mean bigoted b--ch ovous they was creaming off the funds.i asked her why didn't she work for the uk. she looked at me shocked and no reply. a few days later I overheard her say to a Co worker on her phone.what I had asked, laughing about it I heard them dicuss it was easy to rip people off.thats why some of the poor country's are always struggling, so I now won't donate as its more than likely going in her and Co workers pockets. by the way she looked down on me because I was a cleaner, her cat would be sick .hours before I got to her property and she'd expected me to clean it up. I wouldn't. she told me to I refused, its her cat she to clean it up .we didn't get on.she's watching me though the crack of her door's, yes she was one of them. i left not long after.
I wouldn't feel comfortable donating clothes that I wouldn't wear myself .
What you do to the used clothes?
@@Hussainpiplodwala i have a big bag of unused clothing that doesnt fit me for sewing
But people without clothes may like them!
I cut up old tshirts, towels etc. They make great substitutes for paper towels. When the big toilet paper scare was in, I wasn't worried because I could have easily repurposed some of my rags into small squares to use instead of TP. A bucket with a little bleach water like diapers go in and then launder. No need to waste.
@@Hussainpiplodwala at least if you live in a country that burns their trash to energy I would put my broken and unusable clothes that can't be fixed to garbage unless I can use them for something else. For example cleaning oil of your bike and then to garbage.
Some companies also take rags for recycling but you should do your research and try to find if they really make something out of the clothes because for example H&M is NOT very reliable for recycling rags even if they say they do.
But if your now unusable clothes are in very good condition then I also would donate them but after thay try to make more consious choices when buying new clothes for example try to buy them used, try not to buy clothes you are not super sure you will use a lot and really like etc.
When I was raising my nine kids we had a house fire, my kids lost all of their clothes, people started dumping off garbage bags full of moldy, dirty clothes, like they were doing us some favor, they would just leave them without asking if we even wanted them, I had to sort out anything usable from those bags and find some way to get the tons of clothes to the dump and somehow to pay to discard them there. I was a single divorced mom raising nine children not on welfare, but we struggled so hard financially, it was heart-breaking how insensitive people were who did that to us. I can relate to how these people feel, so sad.
You should had out a sign no dumping clothes
Wow. That is horrible. Sorry you had to go through that.
Autumn I've seen that happen to someone before, people can be so rude and clueless.
where do you live. (country or state)
Well damn they thought they were doing you a favor!! You have a house fire kids had no clothes and they left you stuff to go through no thankfulness at all.
It makes me flabbergasted that many clothes go to the trash like this. In my family clothes will be used until the person cant wear it anymore. If the person grown up the clothes will be given to a poor person or a relative with apropriate age.If the clothes are unusable due to wearing out then we will turn it into cleaning cloths. It will only go to trash if none of these things can be done to the clothing. And I dont remember when was the time we threw our clothes to trash before since we usually wear durable clothes.
It's sad when I see how Europe helping Africa by sending their trash instead of good quality new cloth. That was led to having a lot of unused garbage cloth so they HAVE TO trow them away !
I don't know about that "men" part, men generally wear the same t-shirt and pants for 5 years minimum
The sweat shirt that I'm currently wearing is probably 20 years old, I just buy stuff for best, then use it to wear for work when it's starting to get shabby, I have removed a back pocket from a pair of jeans to use as a patch on a knee, some knee holes go from seam to seam. . Apparently a lot of women order stuff from the internet, wear it once, then send it back to get a full refund.
"man" here, is used for people more generally - come on (its wrong, but you know it)
I dont donate clothes, I use it, then trash it when its no longer usable. Often using it for polishing rag. But being white, I hear I'm the devil...so must be my fault somehow.
That's true. If I wore them for 7.5 years then I'd have to wash them three times 😳
@Ryoutes Hiraeth surely it is better to wear the clothes until they are worn put and unusable, rather than chucking out perfectly good clothes and buying more?
Or am i missing the point here?
I think it was my Grandfather (way back in the 70's and 80's) that had donated a lot of clothes to GOODWILL stores... only to one day discover that almost all of what he donated ended up in the local dump.
Seems Goodwill stores had the practice of purposely dumping clothes and claiming a loss on their taxes and profiting from it.
Grandfather wrongly believed the clothes were going to people who needed and could use them. There was nothing wrong with them.
Never ever trust Goodwill stores. They sell what they can for profit and they toss the rest for profit (thru taxes) also.
Be careful who you donate your old clothes too... chances are... they won't end up being used... but being... *used*.
Do goodwill stores pay tax?
Yeah and it sucks because covid made it harder to donate. The actual homeless shelters and Samaritan centers won't accept anything because of covid so goodwill is the only option
Go online. N give away to someone else who needs its instead of selling it
Greedwill.
If second hand clothes are creating such a debacle, imagine what your mailed leftovers are doing.
not sure if being a clothes hoarder slows down this problem. As I am watching this video, I am wearing a worn out t-shirt I bought around 10 years ago. The remote work from home during the pandemic gave me the freedom to wear anything I want since I am at home all day and no one would physically see me except people in the house so I started to wear my old clothes with stains and holes that I hoarded over the years.
My grandma used to make patch work quilts, braided rugs and childrens clothes from material of unwanted clothing. There are many uses for second hand clothes that if you use the imagination could save them from going to the land fill site.
I agree, rugs can be made from the cast offs after washing them. Small stains on ladies' clothes can have embroidery added to hide the area. Cloth tote bags and purses can be made from old clothing and quilt patches. The buyers are not thinking outside the box at all. It is horrible what is happening to the ocean and landfills. They need to make products out of the cloth and resell. In America they make insulation from old clothes as well.
My late great grandma used to do that too....
The younger generation don't know how to sew anymore. Even some of the older generation can't sew on a button. They stopped teaching home economics and besides, there was a turning point where making your own clothes at home became more expensive than buying them.
@@karen4you I partly agree, these are good ideas to use the clothes. I disagree that it's their problem. It's OUR problem. They're getting more clothes in by the shipload, than they have a market or space for. The problem starts on our end. If WE would reuse our own cast-offs, sew quilts, weave rugs, repair tears, fix zippers, replace buttons, etc., and stop buying so much, we could be part of the solution. I sew and quilt, and I was looking at those jackets as good patchwork fabric--not trash.
If only there was a way to send them sewing machines, embroidery machines, fabric dye, thread, weaving looms, and what they'd need to make a business out of reclaimed clothing, they could have a reliable income, and save some of the waste from polluting their environment.
@@cariwaldick4898 I don't buy much for clothes and do remake or use all the fabric even sock material. None of mine goes to the landfill. The buyers of the clothes there are being taken advantage of with things they can't sell. Here there is a place that makes insulation out of old clothes so none is being sold off in my area that I know about. I'm older and don't need fast fashion. I love recycling, even melting down number 2 plastic for stepping stones for the yard.
We Need to start making these big corporations accountable for their destruction of this Earth.
Us too. We don't need to shop that much.
@@someoneunknown1211 The amount of pollution caused by single or family consumers is dwarfed by that created by corporations.
@@MsNessbit yes but the demand of customers leads to corporations producing more
@@penut3805 capitalism is the system that encourages that demand. It puts infinite growth of profit as its priority on a planet that isnt infinitely growing. Capitalism is like a cancer cell growing in a human body until it destroys it. All so an extreme minority of people can become billionaires and millionaires. It's why 8 men control more wealth than 3.6 billion of the worlds poor. If that's not an alarm that our system is a complete failure and immoral. Then I don't know what is.
Stop buying their shit. Corporations dont make that much shit unless it sells.
This is disgusting. As A 70 year old New Zealander,I have always been very much against this kind of waste. Thanks for this reporting. Pity the clothing can't be chewed up and recycled into something - like bricks for housing???
These clothes used to be very good quality now we get trash. Its like it's become big business and people are compromising. I watched a video of how these clothes are collected washed and then put in those bells. So despite not knowing who may have been wearing them you get good clothes. The major problem in Africa is that we fail to produce our own clothes or it's too expensive to produce such that the clothes are too expensive to sell. So the only clothes that come in as new items are usually from china and are the kind of clothes if you wash them 2 to 3 times they start fading and not good. This is totally different from the clothes we usually get from these bells ("dead mans clothes"). Even Fashion Chain stores clothes aren't. So as Africans we need to start producing such clothes our selves and find a way to sell them cheap. This way we will eventually stop importing these "dead man's clothes".
I still have clothing items that are 20 years old and I was raised to take care of my stuff and not simply discard it.
Same! I still have some stuff from high school and I’m 30! Lol
Yes I was born in ‘91 and still have clothes from late 90s-2000s. I’m too big for them but my daughter has been able to wear some
@Big Bob I mean that's reasonable though. A lot of us arent skaters. Ever heard of Arbor though? Skateboarding company with clothes made from bamboo. That way when your clothes get destroyed at least they'll biodegrade better than synthetics
I have some clothing from high school and I am 74.
I have plenty of clothing that is 30 years old. I mend things when necessary.
Since I have clothing, I do not shop for more clothing.
Right. I’m a white man and I shop for clothes every 5-10 years and wear the same shit every week.
When clothes are not good anymore they can be used as cleaning rags. That's why it's always good to just buy clothes you'll actually wear so to not have a ton of clothes
spot on my friend. even tho I'm white, I use my old clothes for rags
@@greenwave819 lol what ? Why bring being white into it.
Once l ripped a bunch up in stripes and made a rug...buttons and all! I can't believe l sold it!
@@greenwave819 lol...l get it
If my old items aren't good enough to donate I always turn them into rags. Then I use the rags until they're worn out and then they go in the garbage.
Some of those women should use the throw away clothes to make rag rugs,quilts,smaller items of clothing&sell it even collecting buttons off the clothes &selling them I wish somehow someone could teach them these skills lots of people around the world would buy stuff like that ,I unfortunately have no clue how to start something like this tho
Yeah I don't think skills are the problem. Poverty is. I make items out of used clothes as a hobby, and it takes a LOT of time. You also need a sewing machine, thread etc. All of this is just not profitable. Who would they sell it to? I'd spend a full day making a handbag that's halfway decent. The other ppl there are poor too, they're not gonna buy luxury items. With the speed of incoming shipments, they need to do what they can to feed their families. WE should be the ones repurposing our items instead of throwing them away.
Corruption and poor leadership are some of the very many challenges affecting African countries
Plus having many kids which they cannot feed.
I cut up old clothes and use them as stuffing for dog beds. Gave a few to the shelter too, dogs don’t need anything too fancy if it’s comfy!
that's a solid idea
@@greenwave819 I was thinking the same thing. Great idea!
i would love to be your dog
So I hope you got a website and a business name. Then take and donate some to Ghana
And it’s more appreciated
It is heartbreaking. The same is happening in the desert of Atacama in Chile. Towers of unwanted clothes. Stores like Zara, H& M, Forever 21 should be fined. They are responsable for these tragedy. People should be educated. Overbuying has repercussions all over the world. People in wealthy countries don't know how to fix clothes anymore. Skill such as hemming a skirt, replacing a button, or replacing an elastic band appear to be forgotten.
You do realize that a lot of people dont want to wear the same clothes for a long time. Luckily for poor countries they can get cheap clothes from rich countries.
@@diegoperez2090 Is that because they get bored of the clothes or because they feel under pressure to wear what the power elites deem to be fashionable the next season?
Don't "they" have eyes and brains to see and decide for themselves after watching both the fast fashion promoters and detractors?
Or putting in a new zipper
Or darning the tiniest of holes in a sock or a shirt.
No way of setting up a waste incineration plant to produce energy from this? Love, peace and justice.
So many of these countries don't have the technology or resources. Most of their governments are also terribly corrupt, so there's little thought about the people or environment. Some of them can't even build railroads, let alone dams for hydroelectric power, or clean burning incinerators.
Developed world shipping up their unwanted junk calling it a donation, in reality getting rid of waste from their land and turning Africa to the biggest landfill. Hypocrisy!
every fast fashion influencer NEED TO WATCH THIS!!!
I doubt it will suddenly change their mind. Not that they should, they are operating a legitimate business. It’s a sad situation but landfills being filled with used clothing is only the tip of the iceberg
a treasure trove of fashion finds!
Well fashion is one thing and style is an other thing.
@@carolinaroach5938 there are some influencers who share minimalist style or triftngbor how to style one shirt / dress etc. multiple ways... BUT so many just share hauls and hauls every week 💔
Yup! But sadly if the government doesn't change the way we work.. greed won't stop on destroying us. We need to have meaningful jobs. And jobs that don't destroy the earth just cause of money! We need free housing to start of, we need less cars, we need more public transportation!! And we need to change a lot in our cities and our way of living to improve as a society. But here's the thing.. WE DON'T CARE UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE! so, my hopes for humanity are 📉 declining, like so low.. that I don't know what's going to happen. I think that we will end up extinct at one point just for how destructive we are as a specie.. :/
I don't understand why people discard perfectly good clothes? A shirt would normally last me 10-15 years. A pair of leather shoes would last me 8 years at a minimum.
Sorry to say that it is about marketing in our capitalist countries. It is about selling, selling and selling and people buying, in the long run it is about making money and not caring about the planet.
Only if u still alive. When youre dead?
Wait what kind of shirts? Cotton ones?
@@amazingdollart4676 Yes, it's very well made. once in a few years I need to stitch the hem a bit but that's easily done.
Read the title on the video thumbnail, it’s DEAD white man’s clothes. These are the clothes of dead people so they are donated
All of that waste is combustable, they could build power plants powered by high temperature furnaces with scrubbers that would mitigate air pollution. These could power factories to employ the people. It is actually a resource.
You gotta have money and engineers to do that. And 3rd world countries don't have that.
Fast fashion is so horrible for the environment. After seeing a few documentaries like this and seeing the impacts in so many less fortunate countries, it's convinced me to cut up as much of my old, unusable clothing for scrap as possible. I'm not sure what I'll use it for yet, but it'll at least keep it out of a landfill.
When my cloths start to wear out I just use them for shop rags when doing mechanic work lol.
scrub the floor, clean the stove, wash windows, wash the car, oil changes ETC ETC ETC
ditto
Same here, "meaning", we are not contributing to this problem
I do the same
synthetic cloth makes terrible cleaning rags. You can only use some clothes for that.
Maybe going back to natural materials like wool, cotton, flax, linen instead of petrochemical products like polypropylene or recycled plastic. Natural fibers are good soil conditioners and fully decompose within months instead of lying in the ground for hundreds of years.
You want to wear wool? Wool that is durable enough to wear to a blue collar job, let's say at a waste management facility. Not a driver but a sorter, somebody that sorts the garbage on conveyor belts. It's thick, like .375 inches thick, it is also heavy and hot also easily damaged from metal equipment. Oh and just think about all of the odours it would have the opportunity to absorb.
disclaimer I don't work at a facility described above but having worked blue collar jobs on the technical side most of my adult life, I can use experience to describe a place like that.
@A A Are you a corn/soybean farmer? You sure do love soybeans. I have been around farmers and have never heard someone work soybeans into one sentence as you did. Oh, you forgot tofu, fufu.
And in what way will industrial agricultural production with pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides be better? Just image in the acreage it will take grow the amount of raw material required for this production.
You should look at how cotton is processed in 3rd world countries ..it's a toxic mess with no regulations..the rich countries keeping poor countries poor..sad, just sad.
I think the problem lies with how we see clothes as disposables due to how fast we manufacture clothes.
So sad. I've changed a lot since knowing this. I used to buy clothes etc because I liked it. Now I only buy when I really need it.🧿♥️💔
They should consider making electricity from trash. That may alleviate the problem of black smoke into the air. A lot of European countries are generating electricity from trash.
At 40 I'm no longer interested in trendy fashion...I invest in pieces that can be worn for yrs...
I’m going that way too x
I've become a plain white T guy mainly myself. $1.59 shipped and I always have a new shirt that matches anything on standby. Forget fashion.
The last guy's comment doesn't make sense because the people who donate their clothes don't think it's being shipped to another country. The government from their own country should intervene in this matter because it's not healthy to breathe chemicals from burnt clothes every day, it's sick and a disgrace!
This going on for years
Nothing new
Yes we do no not all donated be sold
IM SURE MORE THAN F WHITE MAN WEAR THOSE CLOTHES
Trump was right .Shit hole.Corrupt government and society
@@Dan-ih3dm damn I really miss Trump. He at least told the truth. People get mad when call it as you see it. The government of this country should intervene
I think it would be fine to incinerate clothing , that's fine and the chemicals on it. Why I'm sure it's minimal. Maybe stop making clothes with chemicals. Like everything else
Also the unwanted clothing can be disinfected washed and grinded in a machine to make cheap mattresses stuffings. Your trash is wealth. Employment for the needy, with good pay to sustain the employees and their families. May God Bless you
I'm all for donating lightly used or new clothes. But so ppl will throw anything to donate. I live in the USA and ppl donate dirty, stained & ripped clothing. It's important to remember when donating something, "would you wear that piece of clothing just as it is?" If not, then DON'T DONATE IT!!!
I am in Nigeria, West Africa, everything in this documentary is so true. I never knew those clothes were actually donated. Yet we buy them here too as well. May God help us in Africa.
I was thinking the same thing, how can clothes that were donated to be given free to all the people be taken and sold by a few?
@@suziecreamcheese211 Wherever you donated them to, they all sell them to the "needy" not give them away. They just happen to beselling them to the needy in Africa.
@@WorldIn360channel I now scan what my clothing is made of
I avoid polyester like the plague ad it is indestructible. also I wear my clothes long as possible. even cheap clothes last a long if taken care of properly and with care. rhh
Did you ask who paid for the shipping to Africa and other expenses? It was donated free by people but people brought it to Africa so they spent money.
@@ruthhaller276 how is the milk , cheese, & meat from the goats ,sheep and cattle who munch on mixed threaded items at the top of the garbage pile ?
Quality of clothes has disintegrated rapidly, even "new" clothes are shockingly low in quality which sadly clearly has this flow on effect.
Why they keep importing them if they are just throwing them into landfills is beyond me.
I shop at 2nd hand stores myself and have noticed the old clothes are way better in quality than a lot of the new items in low end stores.
*Because most clothes are made in China and the quality is very low. Africans wants big designer names too. Why not?*
The clothes your 2nd hand stores can't sell may end up in Africa.
@@reginaward8092 yes. I said it was a flow on effect. Being cool wearing brand names is not as important as stopping an environmental disaster. Which is the problem they are showing you here. Needing clothing is different.
@@bobs182 Yes. That is exactly what they are saying is happening.
Reporter didn't wear a mask.. ABC says everyone should have to wear one. The guy is in a third world country, mask less during a pandemic...
The fast fashion industry is causing Enviro catastrophies everywhere,the cotton farms here are the reason the Murray river is stuffed.The Aral Sea in Asia has completely gone!!!!
So if anyone is donating, it's important to get rid of stains and wash the clothes. It doesn't take that long and then you know you are truly donating something worthwhile. If you think about it, thrift stores don't have the time, money or resources to wash what is donated. I have seen thrift stores grab a bunch of clothing in a group and was told they are sending them to another country.
So they expect us to buy top quality clothing, not wear it out then give it to the charity store for free so they can sell it again at a profit.
I buy good clothes and keep them until they are worn out, then I use them as cleaning rags.
Why are the waste clothes not used or upcycled in some way?
Just non-plastic clothes thanks -the environment
Because they are picky
And how they would complain if the stream dried up.
Yes it's true
Makes me feel better about my 14 year old t-shirt. It's still wearable so no need to replace it. When I do event need to replace it, sadly the new one likely won't be manufactured to last as long.
Agree much, now i dont feel so bad about keeping some favorite pieces of Clothing for many years now.
Are the people allowed to burn the clothes in one pile at a time ??? 🙏
I'll be honest. That is a bit weird lol. Power to you I guess tho
Keep them old clothes my friend, they dont make clothes with the same quality anymore, shirts dont last longer than a year nowadays.
I still wear my 15 years old clothes , same as shoes! If you choose the basic designs, and colors, you can wear them forever. The classic ones always in style forever! Not run after the fad or seasonal! Get compliments all the time! GW Boutique does miracle! AKa GoodWill!
The reality is that when people put clothing into a charity clothing bin, they are expecting the clothes to goto the poor or charity stores to be sold to help the poor in their own country. They are not expecting these clothes to leave their own country.
But the so called 'charities' that own these clothing bins will sort through the goods donated and bundle them up into bales that are then sold overseas for a profit, none of which is ever used to help anyone. Genuine charities that you know help people are fine, just all the others are not.
So when donating clothes, donate things that are still in decent condition to actua knownl charity shops, not random unknown charity bins, they are a scam and will not help people in poverty in your own country. Often they don't even try to sell it in your own country, it's just sorted by fabric type and shipped overseas.
In kenya, for decades, donated clothes from Europe are sold in black bags from a lorry for about 5 euro. I bought one top for 5 euro. So your donations are turned into a buisness, that extorts money from charity. And temps people to buy such clothes that where given origionaly for free. I noticed that the jump in evolutional fasion was huge. . From homemade clothes ect. But now the standard has risen bigtime. And a visual divide ect.
man, textiles are probably one of the easiest things to repurpose too with a bit of basic cutting and sewing, into new clothes, patchwork blankets, bags, keychains, dish cloths even (depending) ...tshirt yarn... the ground for embroidery, or even chopped up to use as stuffing for toys and pillows.... kinda wish there were organizations to make that happen on an larger scale - even maybe get some more jobs in Ghana where they can take the stuff they dont want to sell and turn it into something else to sell instead. Would be great if that could be a thing more world wide too like "hey, you dont want that dress you wore twice cuz its not "in" anymore?? Give to to this group that can repurpose it" instead of having it rot and mess with the environment
This was exactly my thoughts. You make so much things.
That lady says she has been studying there for a decade, so...... what ways has she found to make it better????? I was thinking all the jeans could be used to make insulation for homes.
A nice idea which would work with natural fibre or non-mixed synthetic fibres. I think the main problem would be that it is too expensive to repurpose mixed synthetic materials as they would need the fibres separated out for any viable recycling.
Then you have all the dies and microplastics that would wash off in the process and other plastic based fibre particles would get into the air.
Repurposing is a great idea but is labour intensivve and I don't think there is a large enough demand for patchwork quilts or t-shirt rag matts etc to use even a small portion of this disposable fashion. Plus there would be so many unusable pieces left over still going to landfill. Reusing something as a cleaning rag still means it's going to get thrown out eventually... these cheap types of textiles just wear through and discentegrate into scraps of plastic rubbish.
People in the West need to stop over consuming and instead buy quality clothing then re-use and recycle it as you suggest, in their own households, in their own countries.
This hideous cycle needs to end!!
You're so right!
Polyester and other synthetics fibers are harder and more expensive to reuse, but there are companies that actually use recycled polyester on their items. Instead of sending their rubbish to countries that doesn't have the means to do that, they should keep it and re-use all the synthetics and send only the natural fibers that can actually be recycled and create new jobs and a new market in Ghana. Even if the clothes doesn't have the composition tags anymore, it's as easy as to burn a little piece of fabric, synthetics always smell like plastic burning.
Because the pop media & the fashion industry teaches you that the more you consume the more respect you have
These woman are the strongest I’ve ever seen. I’ll never complain about my job ever again.
You gotta be strong if you are stupid. These people are 200 years behind because of all the freebies they get. They get just enough to stay ignorant and survive.
They’re beyond dense; who would want to put a child let alone 3 or more into such an environment?
@@outkast187 if you are gonna be dumb you have to be tough
Yes you will
@@moonooze6171 I was going to say the same thing.
This is terrible and I hope who ever it is that organises these clothes from our end makes sure that they only give them clean good clothes... They are donated for free from us to our local second hand shops.
I went to a rehabilitation program that involved working in a super thrift store to pay off housing and food. We sorted clothes that were all donated. Piles upon piles. All the good stuff was already picked out and hung up accordingly. We baled clothes as well. But we were told the clothes we bale were going to be used as rags. The same bales you see here. They're literally selling them containers of what we determined were "rags" for 95 grand a piece. Thats freaking insane.
I dropped out of Fashion Design program when the head of the department informed us that the industry causes as much environmental damage as the auto industry. She said second hand/up cycling clothing is imperative to make a positive impact on the problem. She said she felt it was her moral duty to provide that information to all students. Admirable of her and she got me interested in thrifting. Which I love more than department shopping. I buy undergarments, swim suits and shoes brand new, but I love thrifting for everything else.
its definitely worse than the auto industry
Why not buy used underwear and shoes too Miss Pollyanna Perfect!!
@@t.j.7789 Why not be unaffected by what I wrote Bitter Balls T.J.? Get a life.
Smart 🤓
@@t.j.7789 Why don't u buy it yourself Karen!!
I wear my clothes until they are rags... Literally. Madison Avenue and every fashion brand can pound sand.
…Then you can actually use them as rags before disposing.😇 I do this particularly with tee shirts and linens.
Thank you.Well said!.😊
Here in usa we also have a problem with waste clothing. On the positive side, hopefully people with more money than brains will spend their money on helping the textile industry instead of making ignorant babies. Having dealt in second hand clothing part time to pay the bills since 2005. Times have changed. I'm taking 33% to landfill %33 to donation boxes. The rest I sell, it's down to $1-$3 per garment. Less pollution than most industry. Seems to hurt the fishermen. They need a few looms to make rag carpets, maybe.
Later, after watching this, I had a couple of ideas. Someone (many someones actually) could take the rejected clothes and inspect them. If they are only dirty or just need minor repairs (like replacing buttons), they could do that and then the clothing could be sold. If they are more damaged but still have large patches of good fabric, that could be made into quilts and other quilted products. I'm still working on ideas for what is left after that point.
I don't know if these ideas are feasible; I hope so. We all need to be problem solving and creative in order to create and maintain a circular economy.
Susan tus ideas son buenas pero si me permites creo que esta bola de nieve solo la pararemos si cada uno de nosotros se esfuerza en consumir lo mínimo posible , así no habrá tanto negocio y destrucción.
@@almudenagonzalez760 Thanks for your thoughts! I absolutely agree that we must consume less of pretty much everything. Later I watched a German documentary and learned that many people today wear clothes only one time before discarding them and some even come to thrift shops with the tags still on. Fast fashion contributes too.
Susan , our behaviour is absolutely irresponsible and selfish .If we don't stop , this ship will sink sooner than later , and everyone is on board. Thank you very much for your answer and greetings from Madrid , Spain !
Absolutely, I agree with you