Donated synthetic 2nd hand clothes creating environmental hazard for Kenyans

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Environmental campaigners are demanding action to tackle the mountains of low-grade second-hand clothes in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

The groups say most of the used garments come from the EU, but they’re of such poor quality that half of what arrives is ending up in landfill and polluting rivers. Landfills like this scar the Nairobi landscape. According to environmentalist groups in Kenya, many of these sites are effectively filled with synthetic fabrics from second-hand clothes donated from overseas. They say the clothes are mostly from the EU – donated to charities after they’ve already had second-, and perhaps, third-hand use.

By the time the bales of clothes arrive, they are effectively only fit for the rubbish dumps. The claims are made in a report by the Changing Markets Foundation, which is based on findings by the groups Wildlight and Clean Up Kenya.

The exporting of plastic waste is restricted under the Basel Convention, a voluntary agreement called the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal. But the Changing Markets report says a third of the old clothes shipped to Kenya through the port of Mombasa contain plastic and is of too poor quality to be worn.

The scale of the problem is increasing according to the group Clean Up Kenya. Its founder, Betterman Simidi, says the problem is that the market for second-hand clothes has become less about charity and more about big business. He says that because so many contemporary clothes are made with synthetic fibers, they take a long time to degrade and risk contaminating the local environment.

Edward Mungai, a sustainability researcher at Strathmore University says the manufacturers should be made legally responsible for the sustainable disposal of their clothes.

Benard Nguyo, Director of Quality Assurance and Inspection at the Kenya Bureau of Standards says the government is already taking steps to crack down on hazardous imports.

Existing laws require imported bales to be packaged transparently to allow traders to see the contents before purchasing. Also, the Kenya Bureau of Standards contracts independent companies overseas to inspect the clothes at ports before they’re exported.

This article was provided by The Associated Press.

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[A dump site]

[A woman sorting clothes she collected from dumpsite]

Susan Kwamboka (interview): “I usually collect the clothes that come from the main second hand cloth market of Gikomba. I then wash them and try to sell them in my neighbourhood. However most of the clothes are of poor quality and cannot be cleaned. They easily tear and are no good since no one wants to buy them.”

[A second hand clothes market]

[Isaac Mureithi stall holder at second hand clothes market sorting clothes]

Isaac Mureithi (interview): “Most of the clothes are usually very old. We discard most of them rather than selling them thus making losses. I would like to appeal to them that they should pack clothes that are of good quality. This should be grade 1. Grade 2 clothes are very old and worn out and don’t fit anyone.”

[Second hand clothes market]

Betterman Simidi (interview): “When these clothes are donated in Europe, the people donating them, the EU citizens, might think that they are doing a good will gesture to poor countries like Kenya but at some point, you know these donations have become a multi million (dollar) industry.”

[Imported bales of second-hand clothes]

Betterman Simidi (interview): “So we are finding out that countries in the global south, including Kenya, have become the end of the runway for the fashion industry.”

[Pieces of second-hand clothes polluting Nairobi River]

[Clothes in a landfill]

Betterman Simidi (interview): “This clothing has a lot of effects on the environment, they pollute the soils. Remember many of them are made from polyester which is essentially plastic as we know plastic takes a long time, many years to degrade and so they pollute our water sources.”

[Edward Mungai, sustainability expert and environmentalist at Strathmore University]

Edward Mungai (interview): “Now for instance they export and forget about it, they need to go one step beyond and probably even figure out what to do with those products and in this case you know the synthetic materials probably there should be a ban in terms of what should be exported and what not to be exported because that way then we can deal with the problem that we are having in the south where we are getting second hand things of which only probably 50 percent can be able to be used the rest goes to the landfills.”

[Benard Nguyo, Director of Quality Assurance and Inspection at the Kenya Bureau of Standards, in his office]

Benard Nguyo (interview): “We have put in place a program which we call pre export verification of conformity to standards program which basically entails us appointing third party inspection companies who inspect on our behalf and are answerable to us, all goods coming into the country particularly since we are talking of used clothes coming into the country and certify them before they are allowed to ship. So this program is a very important tool for us because then it means when the container arrives we already have an assurance it does not contain unsafe products.”

“It is individual businesses that do the sorting, it is individual businesses that do the exportation and these are the businesses that need to realise that in Kenya we have a standard so if they would want to continue trading with Kenya, then they need to conform to that standard. We have begun a program of risk profiling so that any entity that habitually violates our national standard is blacklisted and will not be able to export to this country.”

[Second-hand clothes polluting Nairobi River]

This script was provided by The Associated Press.

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