The environmental disaster fuelled by used clothes and fast fashion | Foreign Correspondent

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 s