For many in the UK, donating old clothes to charity shops or recycling bins feels like a responsible way to declutter and help others. Yet what happens to these garments once they leave our hands is often far from what we imagine.
Across the world in Ghana, mountains of donated clothing are piling up on beaches, clogging rivers, and overwhelming local waste systems. These are unintended consequences of fast fashion and global charity logistics.
On Jamestown beach in Accra, the impact is impossible to ignore. Bras, jeans, T-shirts, shoes, and handbags — many still with price tags from UK retailers — are all over the shore and washed into the Gulf of Guinea. For local fishermen, the daily catch is increasingly mixed with waste rather than fish.
Where Do Donations Really End Up?
According to a recent investigation by the Daily Mail, only about one-third of donated clothes in the UK are sold in charity shops. The remainder is sold to export businesses, much of it ending up in Ghana.
Kantamanto Market in Accra, the world's largest second-hand clothing market, handles around 15 million garments weekly. While it provides employment for 26,000 people and supports domestic and regional trade, roughly 900,000 items a day are unsellable and ultimately discarded.
Local activist Bright Ayikpah, 29, helps organise beach clean-ups and describes the scale of the problem. 'Watching these tides of waste drown our shores is a nightmare no community should wake up to; it erodes the beauty of our surroundings', he said.
A weekly volunteer clean-up removed 28 tonnes of textiles and plastics. However, piles of soggy and rotting garments are still there.
The Hidden Cost of Fast Fashion
The influx of clothing waste is linked directly to global fast-fashion practices. Cheap, synthetic-heavy garments are produced in record volumes, often intended for a short time.
Liz Ricketts, 39, co-founder of Or Foundation, which campaigns against textile waste, explains: 'The fast fashion model is a volume-over-values business. But it is not just about over-production. How can a product that sells for almost nothing ever be viable or sustainable in a resale market?'
The environmental impact is severe. Clothing debris blocks drains, pollutes rivers, and contaminates wetlands that support endangered turtles and rare birds. Open-air burning of discarded textiles further pollutes the air, releasing microplastics and harmful chemicals.
Over the past 20 years, the production of clothes has gone through the roof around the world. People have bought more clothes, but they don't wear them as often.
The rise of ultra-fast fashion has sped up this cycle. Every day, new styles come out at very low prices, which makes people more likely to buy things on the spot but throw them away quickly. Polyester and other cheap synthetic fibres are used a lot these days, but they don't decompose easily. Instead, they turn into tiny pieces called microplastics that stay in ecosystems for a long time.
Life for Traders and Communities
Despite the environmental strain, the second-hand clothing trade remains a vital source of income for thousands of people in Accra. Kantamanto Market supports a vast network of traders, tailors, porters, and resellers. Many of them depend on clothing shipped from the UK to make a living. The scale of the operation is immense, but so are the risks tied to declining quality.
Vendors purchase tightly packed bales of clothing without knowing exactly what they will receive. They often invest significant sums with no guarantee of profit. In many cases, a large portion of the garments inside are damaged, stained, or unsellable, which means sellers have to lose money.
There are often well-known high street names in these packages, but that doesn't always mean they're worth buying. Many pieces arrive visibly worn or defective, highlighting the growing issue of low-quality fast fashion entering the resale market.
This uncertainty has turned the trade into a high-risk livelihood. At the same time, communities surrounding the market are left to deal with the physical overflow of discarded clothing, as unsellable items accumulate in streets, waterways, and informal dumping sites.
Steps Towards Solutions
Some organisations are working to turn waste into opportunity. The Revival, a non-profit led by former trader Yayra Agbofah, upcycles around 2.3 million garments annually. They use shredded clothing to make things like £55 patched tote bags for the V&A Museum and building materials.
Meanwhile, UK authorities and charities stress that the problem needs to be fixed at its source. Robin Osterley, CEO of the Charity Retail Association, said charity shops do not deliberately export waste. Yet, he emphasised the need for radical change to stop textile overproduction, including incentives for more durable garments.
Adam Mansell, CEO of the UK Fashion and Textile Association, acknowledged that the rise of ultra-fast fashion has led to a lot of low-quality textiles being made around the world. He added that retailers and the recycling sector are working to tackle the issue.
What You Can Do
For one person, this might feel like a problem far too big to fix. But change doesn't start all at once. It starts with you, and the choices you make every day.
If you are planning to donate a bag of clothes into a charity bin, it's worth pausing for a second and ask yourself: 'Would I actually wear this again?' If the answer is no because it's worn out, stretched, or stained, chances are it won't be useful to another person either.
Instead of getting rid of things, think of them as being given to someone else. The clothes should be clean, in good shape, and really usable. If they're not, don't just throw everything into one bag. Find proper ways to recycle them.
When shopping for new items, try to buy fewer pieces. Choose better quality when you can, and wear what you already own more often. Even simple habits, like repairing a loose button or restyling older outfits, can go a long way.
Even though it takes a little more work, the clothes you choose can have an effect on a lot more than just your outfit.
