Full transcript
0:01Narrator: Welcome to one of the largest
0:02used clothing markets in the world.
0:06Janet: One cedi!
0:09Narrator: It's estimated that Ghana's Kantamanto market
0:12handles more than 15 million garments every week.
0:17The used clothes arrived from around the world.
0:19Many started out as donations.
0:25About 30,000 people work here.
0:29These days, they struggle to make a living
0:31from cheaply made fast-fashion brands.
0:34Patricia: When it's torn like this, we trash it.
0:36Narrator: More than a third of everything
0:38that enters Kantamanto leaves as waste.
0:40It ends up in landfills and on beaches.
0:43Liz: What we believe is that what you're seeing
0:45is a sliver of what is actually lying on the ocean floor.
0:50Narrator: Now, Ghana's capital is drowning
0:53in other people's used clothes.
0:56So how do the clothes end up here?
0:58And why do so much of the leftovers become worldwide waste?
1:09Around 100 shipping containers filled with millions
1:12of garments arrive at the market every week.
1:16They arrive in these bales that can weigh up to 125 pounds.
1:22Head porters walk up to 10 miles on their busiest days
1:26carrying bales from the containers to the stalls.
1:30Come pick clothes to wear! Come pick clothes to sell!
1:33If you are here, come over.
1:36Narrator: Retailers buy bales for anywhere
1:38from $100 to $300 without knowing exactly what's inside.
1:44Vendor: Shatta Wale! Janet: That's me! That's me!
1:47Janet: Shatta Wale will bring trouble.
1:49Trouble will come! Trouble will come!
1:52Narrator: Janet Kyerawaa started selling clothes
1:5412 years ago by the side of the road and saved enough money
1:57to rent her own shop in the market.
1:59Sister, come pick one. One cedi.
2:01One. Who will come pick one for me?
2:04Come over!
2:06Huge discount!
2:10Narrator: Janet usually tries to sell
2:11the contents of one bale before buying another.
2:17Then, it's a race against time to move the inventory
2:20and try to make her money back.
2:23The good stuff can sell for about 10 cedis.
2:26That's about $1.60 apiece.
2:29Items made with cheaper fabric, or that have rips,
2:32go for 16 cents.
2:35Janet: My family benefits from this because they get clothes to wear.
2:39But now, it's not like that anymore.
2:43Sometimes, we come and try to woo customers all day,
2:47and we can't even make one sale.
2:51Narrator: Janet says prices of the bales increase every month,
2:55even though the quality of the clothes has declined.
2:58So most weeks, she can't sell everything from her bales.
3:01She's often in debt.
3:03Sometimes, the money she makes
3:05barely covers a week's expenses.
3:10We are going this way.
3:13Sister, take this and sew it for me, OK?
3:16Narrator: Janet also partners with tailors
3:18like Naana to fix tears or resize a garment for a customer.
3:24The bales they give us are garbage, and we sell them at a loss.
3:28Who has ever gotten rich from selling them?
3:32Narrator: She pays Naana 16 cents for repairing
3:35the tear in her blouse.
3:36Oh, won't you reduce the price? I come here every day. So reduce it.
3:40These days, when the clothes sellers buy their goods,
3:43they are not good enough for me to sew.
3:45At times, I don't even get money to go back home.
3:48So before, it was very profitable, but now it is very bad.
3:52Narrator: Other tailors buff shoes to change their color
3:56or dye and starch denim jeans to make them look like new.
4:05In another area, workers steam-press garments
4:08before they go on display.
4:10Man: You see the way I am squeezing my face?
4:13The fire burns me.
4:16Narrator: They use coal to heat their irons,
4:19then smooth a wet cloth over the garment to create steam.
4:29Narrator: The market is flooded with
4:30cheap garments from so-called 'fast fashion' brands
4:33like Marks & Spencer and Zara.
4:36Patricia: When it's torn like this, we throw it away.
4:38We trash it. No matter what you do, it can't be fixed.
4:42Narrator: So every day, many of the clothes
4:44that don't sell are dumped in Old Fadama.
4:48It's a small community with a big landfill.
4:52Some piles of trash tower over 30 feet,
4:55taller than some buildings around here.
4:57At Kantamanto, there are people who sell clothes but have nowhere to keep them.
5:03So the rain causes damage.
5:06So they trash them here.
5:08Narrator: The dump is a breeding ground for mosquitoes
5:11that spread malaria, and the water can spread cholera.
5:14Delle: Clothes absorb water, so we just put some dust on top
5:19so that we will be able to step on top of it.
5:24Narrator: And what doesn't go to landfill
5:26often ends up at beaches like this one,
5:29a mile away from Kantamanto.
5:31Liz: They're very degraded.
5:32Narrator: Today, activists are tracking how clothing waste
5:36washes out to sea.
5:38Liz: So a lot of the clothing waste from Kantamanto
5:40will basically be swept into the open gutter system.
5:43And then it'll tangle around itself.
5:45It contributes to flooding,
5:46which then causes a public health crisis.
5:48And eventually though, it will be pushed out to sea,
5:51and it will make its way to the bottom of the ocean.
5:55Narrator: Liz Ricketts is the cofounder
5:56of the Or Foundation, a charity based in the US and Ghana.
6:01It brings attention to Accra
6:02as one end of a wasteful supply chain.
6:06This team is measuring what they call tentacles,
6:08long tangles of fabric and sand.
6:12They found over 350 piles of clothing along the coast
6:15in just the first two months of doing this work.
6:18Joseph: The secondhand clothing market is not a bad thing. But then I can see that
6:23it is causing a lot of damage at our beaches.
6:26Narrator: The most common brands
6:27found on the beach so far? Marks & Spencer,
6:30Next, H&M, Nike, and Gildan.
6:38Clothing literally looks like a rock
6:41and is being walked on top of as if it's part
6:43of the natural landscape, and it's devastating to see.
6:52Janet: Two cedis.
6:54Narrator: So how do donated clothes end up here?
6:58Americans often donate clothes to charities, like Goodwill
7:02or Salvation Army, that later sell those in their stores
7:05for a low price. But not everything sells.
7:08So donation centers turn to exporters like Bank & Vogue.
7:12Our business is very much like cleaning up
7:15the beer cans at 3 o'clock in the morning.
7:18Narrator: Steven Bethel sells clothes
7:19from the US, Canada, and Europe
7:22to 27 countries around the world.
7:24He sells shipping containers filled with clothes
7:27to what's known as a grading facility.
7:30Graders in places like Pakistan
7:32sort millions of pieces of used clothing
7:34into hundreds of categories.
7:37Liz: Ladies' tops for the office, ladies' tops for casual,
7:40ladies' jeans, men's jeans, children's clothes,
7:43skirts, ladies' shorts, men's shorts, lingerie, pajamas.
7:47Corduroys is its own category.
7:49Narrator: The most valuable item? Women's bras.
7:52If you're at home, and you're looking at your bra,
7:54and you think, "Oh, the wire's sticking out,"
7:56or this isn't right, donate your bras.
7:58There's never enough used bras.
8:00Narrator: Graders are supposed to weed out
8:01items no one will buy,
8:03but those low-quality clothes can slip through the cracks
8:06and end up in Kantamanto anyways.
8:09Liz: We were visiting with a retailer to study
8:12the material content of the waste,
8:14and we found that over 90% of the bale
8:16that she had purchased just two days before
8:19was completely stained.
8:21The stain smelled in some places
8:23and was sticky in some places.
8:25So she was only able to salvage like, less than 20 items
8:28from that entire bale.
8:31Narrator: Liz says more than a third of the clothes
8:33at Kantamanto go to waste.
8:37But her organization is trying to do something about it.
8:40Welcome to our lab space.
8:42It says "No more Man Capital fast fashion."
8:46The business that was here before was called Man Capital.
8:49Narrator: The OR Foundation recently built a lab here
8:52to figure out how to recycle clothing waste.
8:55Retailers like Janet are learning
8:57how to shred unsold clothes to sell as insulation
9:00for mattresses and furniture.
9:03But shredding is a last resort, because it doesn't turn
9:06a large profit.
9:08Head porters can also learn how to sew here,
9:11gaining skills that help them leave the dangerous work
9:13of carrying bales on their heads.
9:16Soabiba Adam Ayesha has been working with the foundation
9:20since April 2021.
9:21I am praying to God to guide me to be able to learn sewing well.
9:24Because it is better than carrying the loads.
9:30Janet: When I see clothes thrown away, it pains me a lot.
9:36Man: We need help, serious help for us to live in this situation,
9:41to have our peace. Because we don't have peace.
9:45Narrator: For Liz, the issue is much bigger
9:47than just Kantamanto.
9:49She wants to hold the global fashion industry
9:51accountable for creating this mess.
9:54Liz: Our goal with this work has never been to cancel
9:57the secondhand clothing trade.
9:58It has been to make it better.
9:59And for us, this is all about the root problem,
10:02which is overproduction, overconsumption
10:04of fast fashion in the Global North.
10:07Narrator: One tool to do that could be the law.
10:11The European Union, the United Kingdom, and parts of the US
10:14are considering laws that would make fashion brands
10:17fund clothing recycling.
10:19So far, France and Sweden are the only countries to pass
10:22what are known as extended producer responsibility laws
10:26for the textile industry.
10:28It's nearly impossible to eliminate clothing waste,
10:32but Liz thinks the Global North could learn
10:34from Accra's secondhand market.
10:37Liz: If we had a version of this in our malls,
10:40and buy our clothes, and then next door
10:42there was a tailor or a seamstress who could alter it,
10:45we wouldn't be producing so much waste.
10:49Narrator: And for consumers,
10:50the solution is even simpler.
10:52Buy less.