2023-06-18 18:44:28
Is it a good idea to collect textiles from Ghana again? Boer Group wants to reduce the waste mountain in West Africa, activists fear that the company takes too little account of the social context. And what are the consequences of new Dutch legislation in this area?
Sarah Vandoorne18 June 2023, 20:44
“What a great initiative.” That is the first spontaneous reaction of Ghanaian environmental activist Cordie Aziz, director of the organization Environment360, when she hears that a Dutch textile collector wants to export unsold clothing from Ghana.
In a pilot project in Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon, the Boer Group family business wants to bring discarded items back to the Netherlands. Otherwise they will disappear in West Africa on the rubbish heap or end up in nature and in the watercourses. This takes its toll, especially during the rainy season in the region: many textiles eventually end up in the sea via the rivers, where they stick together and eventually end up on the beaches.
Ghana alone imports 15 million second-hand clothes every week, while the country has a population of about 30 million: one T-shirt per person every two weeks. “We receive so much clothing, there is no way to start,” says Aziz. “About half of the clothes that dock here are of poor quality. For example, the clothes have stains or tears and are doomed to become waste.”
Environmental activist Cordie Aziz: ‘I hope the company takes the local context into account and doesn’t just see this as a cheap way to get clothes’.Image Sarah Vandoorne
Gambled and lost
Traders at Kantamantomarkt, the largest second-hand market in the region, confirm this. They buy clothes in bales, unopened. They only know whether it contains T-shirts or trousers. The fabric or the condition of the clothing, that’s what they guess. “Cotton? We see that less and less,” says saleswoman Franklin Asaa as she meticulously but quickly inspects the clothes in her bale. She just bought it for 124 euros. “But I shouldn’t have done that. This bale is full of polyester, I can’t do anything with this. I gambled and lost, I will not see my money back.”
Young salesman Xy Sylvester also testifies that he has to go into debt to buy bales, but does not earn enough to pay off those debts. A friend holds out a pair of trousers from one of the bales. Polyester sweatpants in size XXL: the young man could fit three times in them.
About two-thirds of all new textiles are made from synthetic materials such as polyester, according to Textile Exchange figures. It is dirt cheap to make, but it is poor in quality and a disaster for the environment, according to a report by the Dutch foundation Changing Markets. Although he is new to the craft, Sylvester is receiving more and more bales full of polyester. “But I can’t do anything with that, it’s worth nothing anymore.”
Monopoly of importers
Those who don’t care about that are the importers who have sold the bales to sellers such as Asaa. Ernest Okechuk is one of them. He brags that he has an annual turnover of $ 400,000 and asks if we can put him in touch with Western European clothing collectors to become a customer. He adds that he also has contacts in Cameroon.
For importers like Okechuk, the second-hand clothing trade is big business. “All traders have suffered losses on the market in recent years, but importers are making strong progress.” That says Liz Ricketts, who heads the aid organization The Or Foundation. She is in talks with Boer Group about their plans to retrieve unsold clothing, but does not think it is a good idea, partly because it does not provide enough local employment.
Boer Group does provide employment, but is counting on its network of importers to get the project started. “Although the traders themselves will ultimately benefit too, because they can resell their goods,” says Mariska Boer, co-owner of the family business. But here, too, the importers hold the power. “We guarantee the importers that we will purchase the textiles they collect again,” says Boer. What Ricketts says is a better idea for employment is raising funds to recycle locally in Ghana.
Benefit from new legislation
From 1 July, the law on extended producer responsibility, abbreviated: UPV, will take effect in the Netherlands. The bottom line is that brands that put textiles on the market – from clothes to bed linen – must collect textiles again themselves. By 2025, companies must re-enter half of the amount of textiles they market. By 2030, that will be three quarters.
For this to succeed, companies must invest, including in Stichting UPV Textiel. It was founded in 2022 on the initiative of the Dutch fashion, carpet and textile trade organization Modint and the business organization INretail.
Although activists such as Ricketts and local officials in Ghana hope that they too can benefit in one way or another from this new legislation. “The revenues of the UPV model must be distributed correctly,” says Solomon Noi, responsible for waste collection in Accra. “Countries that are now used as landfills should also be involved.”
Stichting UPV Textiel is not talking about redistribution of the funds. However, Peter Koppert of Modint emphasizes that the companies must contribute to the UPV foundation from 2024. “But the positive news is that the second-hand market is self-sufficient: second-hand collectors have proven for decades that you can make a profit from textile collection,” says Koppert. “The goal is that at least 20 percent of the clothes are reused second-hand, of which at least 10 percent in the Netherlands. We also want to recycle at least 30 percent.”
Garbage in Ghana, including a lot of clothing. Image Sarah Vandoorne
300 million kilograms of clothes
The UPV legislation will shake up the landscape of second-hand collection: not only can you take your old textiles to municipal containers, but also to shops. Many traders already offer this service in the form of take-back bins. De Boer Group is one of the players who are going to work again with the contents of those bins. “We do not see the UPV as a threat, but an opportunity for new collaborations.”
According to Koppert, the UPV will ensure that much more textile is collected and can be processed in a high-quality manner: not as cleaning cloths, as Boer Group wants to make from the retrieved textile, but as new clothes. Koppert speaks of a total of more than 300 million kilograms of textiles per year.
A piece of cake compared to the 600,000 kilograms that the Boer Group pilot project wants to retrieve from West Africa. Boer Group calculates that each container is worth around 17,500 euros and expects a turnover of 420,000 euros per year. They hope to make an annual profit of 60,000 euros from the cleaning cloths.
Easily enthusiastic
In Ghana, environmental activist Cordie Aziz has taken a closer look at de Boer Group’s plan. ‘The project has potential and should certainly be encouraged,’ she says via WhatsApp. “I just hope the company takes the local context into account and doesn’t just see this as a cheap way to get clothes.”
Suddenly, a former employee of Aziz calls from Accra. She remains very enthusiastic about the project and fires off one proposal after the other. “Could they also remove plastic again? And old fishing nets, can they do something with that?”
“In Ghana, there are many young entrepreneurs who like to collect and sort,” says Aziz. “It’s easy to get them excited about this kind of plan, but then the outcome has to be there. It does not seem to me that they are intended to be employed for a little bit of nothing. Does Boer Group consider the social dimension in addition to the economic and ecological aspects? That is my biggest concern.”
Journalist Sarah Vandoorne traveled to Ghana this year with the support of the Pascal Decroos Fund for Special Journalism.
Department store with bales of clothing in Ghana. Image Sarah Vandoorne
Read also:
The world turned upside down: this textile collector collects old clothing in Ghana
The Dutch company Boer Group collects old textiles from Ghana, where the beaches are full of ‘our’ clothing, to recycle it in the Netherlands. A good idea?
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