2024-05-06 22:05:03
In Kenya, the second-hand clothes trade plays a major economic role. But the sector is widely criticized for its environmental and health impact. According to the United Nations Environmental Organization, the textile industry is responsible for between 2 to 8% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide each year. Faced with this observation, Africa Collect Textile is trying to give a second life to used clothing.
Africa Collect Textile has taken up residence in a small house on the outskirts of Nairobi. On the ground floor, clothes are waiting to be sorted. Upstairs, seamstresses are busy. “ In this room there is weaving and sewing. In this corner, backpacks are made. We collect cargo pants, we cut them up, add a lining and you see, it makes a bag. It doesn’t look like these were pants originally, does it? ?! “, describes Whitney Speke, communications manager forAfrica Collect Textile.
Africa Collect Textile collects second-hand clothes in two ways: thanks to donations made in the thirty clothes bins placed in Nairobi. Or by buying unsold items from the second-hand market. Clothes in good condition are donated, the rest transformed into jackets, backpacks or rugs. Then sold to Kenya or in Europe. “ Most people did not know where to give or throw away their used clothes, they could not find suitable structures to collect them.constate Whitney Speke, so these clothes are thrown in the trash and end up in open landfills or even in the Nairobi river. Africa Collect textile noticed these gaps and wanted to set up a structure to encourage the recycling of these clothes. »
Better sorting before export
In a report published last year, the fondation Changing Markets denounced that a third of the clothing imported into Kenya contained plastic and was of such poor quality that these clothes were directly thrown away or burned. Thus polluting the environment and leading to health consequences for populations. “ It’s time to ask yourself a question : where do these clothes end up ? do the countries that import have the capacity to manage clothes at the end of their life? ? And then, there is also a problem with fast fashion, there is an overproduction of clothessays Betterman Musasia at the head of Clean Up Kenya, an association which campaigns for better waste management, we need to improve our way of consuming. Take the Europeans for example. The more they buy and donate their used clothes, the more these second-hand clothes end up having consequences on another part of the world. » Betterman Musasia welcomes initiatives like Africa Collect Textile. But above all he would like to see, among other things, better sorting done before export and the establishment of effective systems for managing end-of-life clothing.
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