The used clothes end up in Nairobi River or are used as fuel, causing pollution
Photo: iStock In recent times, over 300 million items of damaged or unsellable clothing made of synthetic or plastic fibres were exported to Kenya each year, according to a new report.
These fill up the country’s landfills, pollute the Nairobi river or are used as fuel at homes or industries, producing toxic emissions, the report by Changing Markets Foundation showed.
The paper Trashion: The stealth export of waste plastic clothes to Kenya was based on fieldwork by Wildlight and Clean Up Kenya. The imported low-grade used clothing, referred to as ‘fagia’ in Kenya, was found strewn around the market place or dumped in the Nairobi river.
Baltic Textile Trading, owners of clothing brand Think Twice, were found to have sold tonnes of unsellable used clothing to local fagia traders. Clothing from several global fashion brands (Guess, H&M, M&S, Next, Old Navy, Ralph Lauren, Superdry, Nike and Yves Saint Laurent) were found dumped in landfills or burnt in Kenya.
The last two decades has seen a drastic increase in the production of clothes — a growing proportion made from cheap synthetic fibres.
The export of used clothing and to a large extent the export of plastic waste is burdening communities and the environment in the receiving countries.
Export of plastic waste has been restricted under the Basel Convention and a Committee of the European Parliament voted December 1, 2022 to ban plastic waste exports outside the European Union.
Even then, the investigation showed that one in three pieces of used clothing shipped to Kenya contain plastic and is of such a low quality, that it immediately becomes waste.
In 2021, over 900 million items of used clothing were estimated to have been exported to Kenya. Of these, up to 458 million used clothing items are estimated to be have been waste, and up to 307 million of these are likely to contain plastic-based fibres, the report showed.
The amount of unsellable used clothing coming in bales from abroad has increased significantly in the last few years, the researchers found.
Around 20-50 per cent of the used clothing in bales they buy is unsellable, said traders. European Union used clothing exporters are packing bales with clothes that are either unsuitable for the destination country (damaged, too small, unfit for climate or local styles) and sometimes even clothes covered in vomit, stains and damaged beyond repair, the report quoted them as saying.
The report pointed out that the export of used clothing “goes through substantial inter-European trade, likely for grading and sorting purposes, before being re-exported to its final destination.”
Countries such as Pakistan act as sorting hubs due to lower labour costs, it added.
A large proportion of used clothing ends up dumped on continuously growing official and informal landfills in Kenya and polluting the Nairobi River, spreading further downstream.
A significant composition of waste clothing was found to be synthetic. The Nairobi river flows along one side of the Gikomba market. The ground around the riverbank becomes noticeably spongy, “seeming to be composed primarily of compressed clothing waste going down several metres to the river level”.
The river banks were covered with whole and shredded clothing, interspersed with plastic ties used for the bales, all of which falls into the watercourse and obstructs the current, but also flows downstream, according to the authors of the report.
Some of the lowest quality clothing were being burnt as fuel to roast food, causing locals to inhale smoke from the burning of plastic and suffering a health hazard.
At Dandora — Kenya’s and possibly the whole of Africa’s largest dumpsite — clothing waste lay on the ground and running layers deep through the sides of the huge hills of waste that lined the truck access road.
The majority of used clothing imported to Kenya comes through Mombasa freight port on Kenya’s coast where it arrives by shipping container. Mombasa itself has many markets for used clothing; however, a significant number of the containers are sent directly onto Nairobi, which is where many of the United Kingdom and European Union brokers are based.
A 2021 report by Changing Markets Foundation revealed how fast fashion has become dangerously dependent on synthetic fibres such as polyester.
Research by the Plastic Soup Foundation found that both nylon and polyester microfibres — which shed from synthetic clothes — can enter people’s lungs and impede recovery of those with COVID-19, as well as affect children, whose lungs are still developing.
The use of synthetics is projected to skyrocket by 2030 and if nothing changes, nearly three quarters of our textiles will be made from synthetic fibres, with 85 per cent of this coming from polyester, in the next 10 years.
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