Or Foundation, AMA Call for Systemic Change, Oppose Total Ban on Secondhand Clothing Imports in Accra

The Or Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in Accra in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), has called for a balanced, systemic solution to the global textile waste crisis, opposing the idea of a complete ban on secondhand clothing imports to Ghana.

The two organisations, in a joint press release issued on Thursday, advocated for a justice-led circular economy that tackles the root cause of the crisis—overproduction—while prioritising the well-being of communities, particularly those reliant on Kantamanto Market, one of the largest secondhand clothing hubs in the world.

The press release stressed the importance of improving conditions within Kantamanto Market, which plays a crucial role in Ghana’s reuse economy, and called for solutions that preserve the local reuse economy, which has the potential to make Ghana a global leader in sustainable fashion.

According to the release, the Kantamanto Market, which creatively reuses, repairs, and upcycles discarded clothing, provides a climate-positive solution, adding that a ban on secondhand clothing imports would undermine the model of circularity and expose the local market to new, low-quality garments from fast fashion brands.

The two organisations highlighted that over 30,000 people were estimated to be working in the Kantamanto Market, recirculating secondhand clothing across West Africa, stressing that the economic behaviour of the fashion industry had resulted in the excessive quantity and declining quality of garments, contributing to waste rather than alleviating it.

Both organisations argue that an outright ban on secondhand imports would be detrimental, threatening the livelihoods of thousands of Ghanaians without addressing the true issue—overproduction by global fashion brands, hence urging fashion brands to reduce production volumes and take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products under an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework.

The release noted that the two organisations were working on initiatives to support remanufacturing and recycling practices in Ghana, which they believe could boost the reuse sector and create new economic opportunities. These efforts, they say, could be further enhanced by globally accountable EPR policies, which would move resources to receiving markets like Kantamanto.

The release also pointed out that the two organisations were leading environmental cleanup efforts in Accra, removing over 20 tonnes of textile and plastic waste from the city’s beaches every week, and that their work had uncovered discarded clothing tags from brands like Nike, Marks & Spencer, and H&M, linking international fashion brands to the environmental degradation seen in Accra, supporting the argument that overproduction from fast fashion was the true source of the textile waste problem.

Both organisations assured continuous support to mobilise resources to improve the secondhand clothing trade in Ghana and are strongly opposed to any blanket ban on imports, calling for policies that hold global fashion brands accountable for the waste they produce.