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WORN OUT — Part II: How African Governments Are Responding to the Textile Waste Crisis

A cow stands on a mound of discarded clothing and other waste at a dumpsite.

Western wardrobes don’t end in Europe or North America. They spill quietly, devastatingly onto African soil, packed into shipping containers and sold in open-air markets under the guise of “donations.” But from Accra to Kigali, Dakar to Lusaka, something is shifting. The bales keep arriving. The markets keep choking. But across the continent, a patchwork […]

WORN OUT: The True Cost of Your Donated Clothes

WORN OUT: The True Cost of Your Donated Clothes thrift1

Part I — The History of a Heap Kantamanto doesn’t sleep. It breathes, wheezes, and heaves under the weight of foreign fabrics. Bales arrive daily—tightly bound, often soaked in chemical stench or rainwater from cargo ships—marked “donation” in faded marker. They are not gifts. They are transactions. They are waste. And they are profitable for […]