7 ms·
Stop dumping your cast-offs on us, Ghanaian clothes traders tell EU
- dt3ft 3y agoOutlaw fashion. Let us all wear the same type of suits as in Star Trek. Problem solved. I wouldn’t mind :)
- layer8 3y agoPatrick Steward did mind. ;)
- blackhaz 3y agoI've read this article but still can't understand how those clothes end up in Ghana. Is EU just dropping them there from airplanes in the sky?
- nextaccountic 3y agoCargo ships?
- aaron695 3y ago[dead]
- polski-g 3y agoDo they not have fire in Ghana? If piles of clothes become too burdensome, just burn them.
- ChuckNorris89 3y agoNothing new. The rich west's environmentally friendliness is built on offshoring their pollution to other nations who are poorer and more easily corruptible.
- explaininjs 3y agoBeen saying this with plastic recycling since forever. Consider: if large swaths of landfill waste were being blown off ships into the ocean, people would consider it a Big Problem. But that happens all the time with recycling and it’s a non-issue. Save the ocean! Don’t recycle! (unless you know your area has a local plant)
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- hyperman1 3y agoI understood the belgian plastic recycling system is actually created by plastic and packaging companies. They had a problem: governement wanted them to deal with the waste, or they would receive regulation to force them. So they turned it into an opportunity: Consumers became responsible for the waste, not the industry. In fact they sell more plastic packaging for consumers to do the recycling, and call it good for the environment, how cynical can you get. On TV, their spokespeople sell the system as working great, and reusing bottles is somehow worse for everyone. They got the numbers to prove it.
- ridgered4 3y agoI was aware the reduce and renew had been reduced to a whisper and largely forgotten (they reduce consumption after all, recycling is the only acceptable one in are consumption driven world) but I didn't realize some one had actually tried to twist things so they could vilify them.
- AvocadoPanic 3y agoThe local plant is a source of micro plastics. Send it to the incinerator.
- BigCryo 3y ago[dead]
- nahnahg 3y ago[dead]
- scotty79 3y agoCould this be shreaded for building insulation or incorporated some other way into the building materials? The amounts are too large for anything else.
- ianburrell 3y agoRecycled cotton is a thing. It sounds like post-consumer cotton is harder to recycle and not as good as recycled from production scraps. Maybe Ghana has the labor to recycle clothes.
- bombcar 3y agohttps://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/home/denim-insulation-pros-cons/ https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/home/denim-insulatio... The main downside is having to absolutely soak everything in fire retardant.
- stinos 3y agoIs that a U.S. requirement perhaps, for certain types of building or so? I mean one can just buy insulation made out of wood fibre (with no additional treatment apart from mechanical processing), apply it in a wooden house and call it a day?
- bombcar 3y agoI suspect there's some requirements, but given the flammability of other insulation/building materials, I think it's more of a "try to get people to buy" requirement.
- denimnerd42 3y agoI mean.. there is the IRC. International Residential Code. It's up to your jurisdiction how they enforce it or modify it. Here's the excerpt for loose fill cellulose: R302.10.3 Cellulose loose-fill insulation. Cellulose loose-fill insulation shall comply with CPSC 16 CFR, Parts 1209 and 1404. Each package of such insulating material shall be clearly labeled in accordance with CPSC 16 CFR, Parts 1209 and 1404. https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/1209.3 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/1209.3 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/part-1404 https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/16/part-1404
- LatteLazy 3y agoSo to be clear, they don't want this to stop. They want to keep getting the clothes. Which they are buying, not having dumped on them. Only they want the EU to pay them to buy them. And that's why they're asking the EU, instead of their own government. I swear the Guardian gets worse every day.
- throwawayadvsec 3y agothey're essentially doing waste management for richer countries at this point...
- randunel 3y agoI don't know why you're getting downvoted, I've got the same take from the article. Here's the quotes the commenter refers to: > The traders from Kantamanto in Accra [...] argue that proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulation should ensure Ghana receives funds towards managing the 100 tonnes of clothing discarded at the market every day. > Critics say the policy does little for “end-of-line” countries such as Ghana – because the fee paid by clothing producers is low at just €0.06 (5p) for each item, and the funds raised do not “follow exports” to countries such as Ghana, which are suffering the consequences of over-production and consumption in wealthy countries. > The Kantamanto traders want the draft EPR policy – due to be submitted in June – to increase the fee to a minimum of €0.50 cents for each item, and to guarantee a fair portion of the money goes to the countries where the secondhand clothes end up, including at least 10% towards an environmental fund to clean up previous damage.
- JamesLeonis 3y agoYou both are being downvoted because this is the Garbage Trade. You want to dump your garbage, you pay the disposal fee. If there is something unfair about this deal, we can dump this garbage on our own domestic soil. Unfortunately domestic disposal fees are much higher than these African sites. Why is there so much clothing garbage? Fast Fashion. Fun fact: 90% of the clothing donations go to these African dumps [0]. As such this will continue until Africa bans clothes disposal entirely just like China banned electronic waste, or the West regulates Fast Fashion. [0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6R_WTDdx7I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6R_WTDdx7I
- m0llusk 3y agoThis focuses on the environmental complications, but the economic issues are particularly difficult. Clothing manufacture and repair is in general among the first technologically sophisticated value adding sectors that developing countries use to climb the economic ladder. Dumping vast quantities of used clothes into an economy effectively kills off an extremely precious local industry.
- lesuorac 3y agoA similar effect happens post-disasters where of course people with nothing need a lot of free stuff (namely food). But after the hurricane is gone your free stuff is just pricing out the local economy. i.e. USA buys a bunch of USA rice and gives it to X country for free which means X countries' farmers cannot actually sell their rice and it hampers economic recovery.
- seanmcdirmid 3y agoThe ideal situation is to (a) send non-free stuff and (b) send money so people can buy said stuff. So (a) is more about logistics (do we have stuff to buy) but (b) can be abused (money is siphoned off by corruption and can't be used to buy a.).
- autoexec 3y agoHow would people with nothing buy rice from local farmers anyway? As long as the US sends only enough rice for people to be fed until they are back on their feet there shouldn't be a problem, since there won't be piles and piles of free rice floating around once the disaster has passed and people are again able to afford to pay local farmers.
- Pet_Ant 3y agoI mean that is great to say if you are a seamstress in a developing country, but if I'm a labourer in said country, I'll happily take a cheaper clothes and less sun-burns thank you.
- Ekaros 3y ago
- permo-w 3y agoperhaps I'm being cynical, but is this not the clothes-trader equivalent of Sam Altman lobbying congress to regulate the AI space?
- yarg 3y agoThis reminds me of what happens with super bowl jerseys. They can't manufacturer them after the fact, so they make both and ship the loser's winner's jerseys of to an alternative reality in Africa.
- Yizahi 3y agoWhy can't they get proper information in advance? What's their problem, just schedule a staff meeting with representatives of both team and have them state clear and unambiguous requirements and expected results. All industries work like this and everyone is happy.
- yarg 3y agoThey sell winner's jerseys to the fans, they make them for both teams because the outcome of the game decides which jersey is reflective of reality.
- Semaphor 3y agoI'm pretty sure they were joking ;)
- yarg 3y agoI wasn't sure in this case; I figured I'd clarify in case my use of "super bowl jerseys" rather than "super bowl winner's jerseys" left too much room for confusion. Also, it was about 2 in the morning when I left the comment, and my brain's a little melty.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- pfannkuchen 3y agoThe African jerseys are just a hoax to make it seem like they don’t know the outcome in advance.
- amluto 3y ago
- Simulacra 3y agoClothing waste is becoming the new plastic garbage patch
- Ekaros 3y agoAnd remember many of the materials are synthetic. Meaning they are plastic, and might decompose poorly.
- zokier 3y agoThe article carefully dances around the question how the textiles end up in Ghana. Also why can't Ghana manage the issue locally, with import tariffs or something of that kind? > 70% ends up in ditches and drains, leaching dyes into the sea and rivers, and covering beaches with vast tangles of clothing. This is prime example of something that sounds more issue with local environmental regulations and their enforcement. And if the problem is corruption then just adding more money in the mix doesn't exactly sound like a solution
- nradov 3y agoRealistically Ghana just doesn't have the resources to strictly enforce local environmental rules. It's a poor country. They are asking for help.
- actionfromafar 3y agoBefore outside environmental dumping, you were a poor country with n problems. After environmental dumping, you are now a country with n + 1 problems. Is it unfair to say to upstream "please stop"? Edit: (Or as it turns out, please pay more to handle this trash for you, it's getting out of hand here.)
- zokier 3y ago> Is it unfair to say to upstream "please stop"? Is anyone currently forcing Ghana to accept these textiles? If they really want to stop textile waste importing then why wouldn't they start with local legislation first? You don't need EU regulations to do import control I'd understand if they'd ask for EUs help for stopping illegal imports or something to that effect, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.
- cthalupa 3y ago>Is anyone currently forcing Ghana to accept these textiles? No, and the super-importers bringing it all in are making a killing off of it. > If they really want to stop textile waste importing then why wouldn't they start with local legislation first? You don't need EU regulations to do import control Because the government of Ghana is currently incapable of or unwilling to handle it. My guess is there's enough money flowing from the people at the top towards the government to stop it, but that's a guess based off of a general distrust of politicians. I do, however, think it's fair to say that if we know that selling this stuff to Ghana is harming the everyday person there and that they are not capable of putting a stop to it - and the everyday person obviously is not - then there is a moral responsibility to not do it. I don't know that increasing the cost is going to do much to stop it, though - this largely just puts more money in the pockets of the people that have already shown they don't care about properly disposing of the portion of clothing that doesn't end up in the secondhand market. Assigning some small portion of that to the government or funding for cleanup won't change that. Placing requirements that make sure that it is only sold to importers that can make sure the waste portion is actually disposed of in a way that is ecologically friendly seems like a better solution. Obviously this would increase the price as well, but the primary goal of "Not ruining the local ecology and harming the people that have to live near it all" is going to be better served.
- Pete-Codes 3y agoThis vindicates my decision to hardly ever buy new clothes
- hyperman1 3y agoI used to buy clothes from a big name chain, just like basically everybody I know. After less than a year, the fabric unravels and I had to buy again. Then quality lowered even more. So as an experiment, I bought some brands I actually saw on HN (we're famous for fashion advise only in negative ways, ) . They cost twice as much or more, but they last forever and feel better too, somehow.
- hulitu 3y agoI bought more expensive clothes. After the first wash they are gone. I'll stick with the ceapest ones.
- hyperman1 3y agoI know, unfortunately. Buying more expensive is far from a guarantee that you'll get quality. You have to be willing to spend more, but you also need to research the market, listen to tips from everywhere, be willing to experiment, and sometimes have dumb luck. Finding quality eats time and is not always doable. And sometimes better is also cheaper. You might be able to buy last year's top model in a clearance, or get second hand stuff that stood the test of time and is nearly indestructable.