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Mitumba trade: Kenya’s weak link to plastic waste – report
A new report by the Changing Markets Foundation, a campaigning organisation that works to expose irresponsible corporate practices, reveals that Kenya is being flooded with plastic waste from second-hand clothes alias mitumba imports.
The report, titled “Trashion: The stealth export of waste plastic clothes to Kenya”, was based on fieldwork conducted by Wildlight and Clean Up Kenya.
According to the report, more than one in three pieces of second-hand clothing shipped to Kenya contain plastic and are of such low quality that they immediately become waste.
In 2021, over 900 million items of used clothing were exported to Kenya, mostly from Europe and North America. Of these, up to 458 million used clothing items are estimated to be waste, and up to 307 million of these are likely to contain plastic-based fibers.
The report blames the exporting of plastic waste on the failure of sorting at the source, as well as the increase of cheap, disposable fast fashion.
It also criticises EU- or UK-based used-clothing exporters for packing bales with clothing unsuitable for the destination country, such as damaged, too small, unfit for the climate or local styles, or even covered in vomit or stains.
“Sorting at the source is failing, as it results in exporting companies skimming off the high-quality clothing for resale in Europe, while the rest is sent outside its borders. Despite this fact, the export of used clothing goes through substantial inter-European trade, likely for grading and sorting purposes, before being re-exported to its final destination,” the report reads in part.
According to the report, Baltic Textile Trading, owners of Think Twice, were found to have sold tonnes of unsellable used clothing to fagia traders, who cut these into pieces that are then supplied as industrial rags and later used as industrial fuels, further contributing to air pollution and emissions.
The report also found clothing from several global fashion brands among the fagia, dumped on landfills, or burnt, including Guess, H&M, M&S, Next, Old Navy, Ralph Lauren, and Superdry, among others.
The report shows that a large proportion of used clothing ends up dumped on continuously growing landfills in Kenya and polluting the Nairobi River, polluting the watercourse.
The report makes several recommendations to promote sustainable and circular textiles. It encourages the use of non-toxic, circular materials and the introduction of eco-design measures. It recommends regulating chemicals in groups to avoid substituting one toxic chemical with another.
Secondly, the report discusses the European Union’s (EU) Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme for textiles, based on the French EPR scheme, which makes producers responsible for managing and treating their products’ end-of-life waste.
The report suggests that the EU’s EPR scheme should address the French scheme’s pitfalls and set more ambitious targets, eco-modulation criteria, and fees to drive change. The report also proposes the introduction of a virgin plastic tax, which will limit overproduction and reduce the use of synthetic fibers.
The report also suggests setting up an EPR scheme for different types of textiles based on recommendations for fees that drive real change and the introduction of minimum eco-design requirements and banning the use of substances of very high concern in textile products.
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