Ghanaians call on fashion brands to step up after fire guts world’s largest used clothing market

Yayra Agbofah has barely slept since a fireplace ripped by way of the world’s largest second-hand clothes market to the bottom simply over every week in the past.

The Jan. 2 blaze on the Kantamanto Market in Ghana’s capital metropolis of Accra decreased enormous swaths of the market to ashes, destroying hundreds of thousands of things of used clothes and jeopardizing the livelihoods of greater than 30,000 individuals. 

Agbofah runs The Revival, a corporation that creates artwork and vogue utilizing supplies the market’s distributors cannot promote. His firm’s storage facility was destroyed within the fireplace, however his studio was not affected.

Lots of his family and friends, he says, weren’t so fortunate.

“I’ve not been in a position to have correct sleep due to the state of emergency and having to see my individuals, household and buddies break down in tears as a result of their livelihoods have been destroyed and you need to begin from scratch,” he instructed As It Occurs host Nil Kӧksal.

Agbofah is elevating cash to assist rebuild the market, which he says performs a pivotal function in Accra’s economic system and helps hold hundreds of thousands of tonnes of garments in circulation that might in any other case find yourself oceans and landfills. 

He and others are additionally calling on quick vogue manufacturers like Shein, H&M and Zara — none of which responded to CBC’s request for remark — to contribute financially to the market’s clean-up and reconstruction.

“We attempt to clear up their mess,” he mentioned. “It is the least they might do to take duty.”

The reason for the hearth continues to be beneath investigation. 

From Canadian donation bins, to Ghanaian oceans

Kantamanto Market’s distributors recirculate about 15 million items of used clothes each month by way of resale, reuse, restore and remanufacturing, in line with the Or Basis, an American-Ghanaian charity that works to seek out sustainable options to quick vogue waste.

The charity estimates the blaze decreased greater than 8,000 stalls to mud and immediately impacted 10,000 employees. 

The gadgets offered there largely come from Canada, the U.S. and England, Agbofah mentioned, arriving virtually day by day in huge transport containers in Accra’s dockyards. 

Individuals in rich nations donate used clothes to charities and thrift shops, which take what they want and discard the remainder. What stays is exported to lower-income nations. 

However what distributors in these nations cannot promote will get thrown away, ending up in landfills or within the ocean, the place it clogs seashores and destroys marine environments.

“No matter actions you’re taking within the U.S. and Canada has a ripple impact on us right here. When you devour a lot, we’ve got to take care of a lot as a result of it finally ends up with us,” Agbofah mentioned.

“I am certain lots of people assume, donating to charity, I am serving to or I am doing one thing, however it’s putting a burden on us.”

The Or Basis says it’s contributing $1 million U.S. to reduction and reconstruction within the fireplace’s aftermath. However it’s calling on clothes firms to contribute. 

“For too lengthy, the style business has used locations like Kantamanto as a vacation spot for his or her extra, however not sufficient consideration has been paid to Kantamanto’s work to course of the output of the linear economic system,” clothier Nutifafa Mensah, the charity’s peer schooling lead, mentioned in an emailed assertion.

“That is actually a round mannequin misplaced to ashes, and as Kantamanto Market seeks to rebuild itself in all its tenacity and resilience, we’re pleading for the style business’s assist in restoration.”

The Ghana Used Clothes Sellers Affiliation (GUCDA), which represents used gadgets importers within the nation, has additionally called on charities, companies and the country’s government to assist. 

CBC has reached out to Ghana’s Ministry of Commerce and Business for remark.

Rebuilding already underway 

Tens of hundreds of Ghanaians rely available on the market to make a residing, Agbofah says. That is why they’re already within the means of rebuilding.

“Persons are working day and night time to get the market again on its toes, and it is an incredible factor to see,” he mentioned.

“It is restoring hope and in addition displaying the resilience of the Kantamanto neighborhood, that no stage of devastation or fireplace would take away the unity and love we’ve got for the market.”

Agbofah says he fell in love with Kantamanto the primary second he laid eyes on it as a toddler. 

“That’s the place I discovered issues that I see within the media, issues that I see in magazines that we did not have entry to model new,” he mentioned.

He additionally noticed financial alternative. Not solely does he create clothes out of textile waste, he additionally works as a stylist, mixing and matching what he calls “uncommon gems” that he sources from Kantamanto’s stalls.

Regardless of his affection for the market, he says it will possibly’t presumably sustain with the glut of things arriving on Ghana’s shores, and it is tougher than ever to show a revenue.

“When you’re donating to charity, you must assume: This product I am donating, is it one thing anyone may use? Why would you donate torn garments, closely stained gadgets, gadgets in unhealthy situation, to charity?” he mentioned.

“Can we deserve torn garments? Can we deserve gadgets in actually unhealthy situations? Ghana just isn’t a dumping floor.”