The hidden cost of fashion: Kantamanto and the global secondhand clothing crisis.
- Anna anna@beamberlin.com
- Feb 24
- 3 min read
Updated: May 5
A Fire That Exposed a System in Crisis
On January 1, 2025, a devastating fire swept through Ghana’s Kantamanto market, one of the world’s largest hubs for secondhand clothing. The blaze killed two people, destroyed two-thirds of the market, and wiped out the livelihoods of tens of thousands of traders who depend on selling secondhand garments to survive (Sarah Johnson, The Guardian, 2025). The destruction laid bare a growing crisis: the unchecked influx of discarded fast fashion from the Global North into Ghana and other developing nations, leaving them drowning in textile waste.
Ghana imported $121 million worth of used clothing in 2023 alone, making it the eighth-largest importer globally (Giz Ghana, 2023-24). Fashion brands contribute to the thousands of bales arriving weekly, mostly from the UK, US, and China. However, as fast fashion accelerates, so does the proportion of unsellable (returned items, overstock and samples) clothing flooding the market.
Despite the efforts of traders who wash, repair, and repurpose garments, 26.5 tonnes of clothing waste leave Kantamanto every week, much of it ending up in unsanctioned dumps or washing up on Ghana’s beaches (Giz Ghana, 2023-24). The Or Foundation, an NGO advocating against textile waste, estimates that 40% of the secondhand clothes arriving in Ghana are discarded as waste. The problem is exacerbated by a drop in quality: items that were once resold are now deemed worthless due to poor durability, synthetic materials, and stains.
From Market to Dump: The Lifecycle of Discarded Clothes
The failure of the secondhand clothing market to absorb these garments has dire consequences.
Mountains of textile waste accumulate in sites like Old Fadama, where cows graze on discarded clothes, and Korle Lagoon, which transports textile waste into the ocean.
Accra’s beaches are covered in fabric waste, entangling marine life and polluting coastal ecosystems.
City authorities can only handle 30% of the total clothing waste, with the remaining 70% clogging drainage systems, exacerbating flooding, and degrading the environment (The Or Foundation, 2022).
A Call for Responsibility: Demanding Change from Fashion Brands
In May 2023, a delegation of Kantamanto traders traveled to Brussels to lobby for stronger Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws that ensure the fashion industry funds waste management in recipient countries (The Guardian, 2023). Currently, France is the only European country with an EPR policy covering textiles, and even that policy charges brands just €0.06 per item—a fraction of what is needed to address the crisis.
The traders’ demands include:
Increasing the EPR fee to €0.50 per item, ensuring funds reach affected countries.
Directing at least 10% of EPR revenues toward environmental cleanup efforts.
Holding brands accountable for the sheer volume of waste they produce, with commitments to reduce production by 40%.
The Or Foundation has also called on brands to disclose the number of garments they produce annually—a transparency measure that has yet to be implemented on a meaningful scale.
A Broken System in Need of Circular Solutions
Kantamanto’s crisis is not unique. Similar stories unfold in Chile’s Atacama Desert, where an estimated 39,000 tonnes of clothing waste is illegally dumped each year, creating toxic mountains of fast fashion waste. These are not sustainable “solutions” for excess inventory, returns, and discarded clothing.
CIRQUEL: Keeping Fashion Circular, Locally
At CIRQUEL, we believe the answer is not exporting waste—it’s preventing it at the source. Our reverse logistics and AI-powered forecasting & resale solutions ensure that unwanted garments stay within the country of origin of the return, reintegrating them into local resale, rental, or upcycling markets.
Localized Orchestration: Prevents unnecessary shipping of returns overseas, reducing CO2 emissions.
AI-Driven Quality Control: Identifies garments suitable for resale, reducing textile waste.
Recommerce & Rental Solutions: Keeps garments in use longer, decreasing landfill reliance.
By providing a sustainable alternative to landfill dumping and secondhand exportation, CIRQUEL helps brands meet EU and newest US regulatory requirements while creating a circular economy that benefits businesses, consumers, and the planet.
It’s time to rethink fashion’s waste problem—not just where it ends up, but how we prevent it in the first place.
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