Ghana is facing a severe environmental and economic crisis due to the massive influx of secondhand clothing from the global north, according to a study by The Or Foundation.According to their report, Ghana imports about 15 million items of secondhand clothing every week, mostly from the UK, Europe, North America and Australia.

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These clothes, donated by consumers in the name of charity, end up in the country's sprawling markets, such as Kantamanto in Accra, where they are sold at cheap prices.But not all of these clothes find a second life in Ghana. The Or Foundation, a human rights and environmental NGO, has revealed that, 40 percent of the clothes are of such poor quality that they are discarded as waste, creating a huge environmental burden for the country.

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"Our research – conducted over a period of six years and informed by immersive observation, hundreds of surveys, thousands of interviews, waste analysis and corresponding data from the municipality – has found that 40percent of the average bale of clothing opened in Accra’s Kantamanto second-hand clothing market, likely the largest secondhand clothing market in the world, leaves the market as waste," the organisation said in a position

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paper."This has created an environmental disaster in Ghana; a disaster that has unjustly become the burden of communities which did not cause the problem," it added.The clothing waste has polluted the air, water and soil of Ghana, posing serious health risks to the population.

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It has also contributed to the 2019 Kpone Landfill fire, which forced the closure of one of the main waste disposal sites in Accra To tackle this crisis, some experts have proposed a levy on the imports of secondhand clothing, which could help fund the waste management and recycling industry.

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Plant Manager at the Accra Compost and Recycling Plant (ACARP), Ganyo Kwabla Malik, told the B&FT that such a levy could create incentives for investors who are interested in processing the clothing waste into reusable materials "If possible, introduce some sort of levy to help players who will be interested in managing waste from this ecosystem. This will serve as a way of investing in the space," he said.

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"As we have it now, the private individual who wants to invest in that space has to bear the cost of machinery and everything. But if there’s a levy of sorts in place, when the material comes in and reaches the end of its life, that money can be devoted to managing this type of waste by first retrieving it and then processing it into reusable materials.

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We believe that this is an area we can dialogue on to get some improvements into the space," he added.ACARP is an integrated waste processing and recycling company that receives and processes municipal solid and liquid waste. It produces organic compost, liquid fertilizer, pelletized plastics, baled PET bottles, baled cardboard and refused derived fuel.

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Malik said that the clothing waste could be turned into products such as carpets, mats, pillows, blankets and insulation materials, which could create jobs and income for the local economy.He also said that the levy could help reduce the importation of low-quality clothes that have no value in the market, and encourage the consumption of locally made garments.

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The levy could also ease the economic pressure on the dealers of secondhand clothing, who are facing a 153 percent increase in import duty since last year.The Ghana Used Clothing Association (GAUCA) said that the hike in duty has affected their profit margins and customer patronage, threatening their livelihoods.

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Samuel Darko Apenteng, Secretary of the Used Clothing Dealers Association at Kantamanto, said that the business used to be very lucrative, but now it is struggling to survive."The situation is posing an existential threat to our livelihoods. This business used to be very lucrative, serving as a source of income for many Ghanaian young men and women who otherwise would have been at home doing nothing.

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But as I speak, we now operate on narrow profit margins due to the increasing bale-price and low customer patronage," he told the media.He said that some of the factors that have contributed to the high cost of import duty include the depreciation of the cedi, high inflation, a challenging economic environment, and additional taxes.

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He appealed to the government to intervene and review the duty, as well as support the local textile industry to produce quality and affordable clothes for the market.He also urged the consumers to be more conscious of their clothing choices and the environmental and social impacts of their donations.

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