Ghana, situated on the southern coast of West Africa, has greater than 500 kilometers of shoreline that arcs and juts into bays and factors. Alongside this coast are a mess of surf spots for these prepared to courageous the bumpy roads in to search out hidden gems alongside its edges. This coast, with its centuries of aquatic historical past, is dealing with a deadly drawback: textile waste.
When individuals within the Western world donate garments to charity, it appears like an answer to the issue of throwing out your outdated garments. However, most of the time, in locations like Europe, Australia, and the US, garments donated to charity are exported to Africa the place distributors should buy bales of clothes at a low value and promote them in markets. Ghana imports about 15 million second-hand clothes objects every week as a part of this commerce. However with the rise of quick style, the standard of those imports have decreased considerably, rendering nearly half of them ineffective for resale. With nowhere additional for his or her garments to journey, they’re dumped, ending up in waterways and alongside Ghana’s seashores.
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In 2024, Greenpeace launched a report entitled Quick Vogue, Sluggish Poison that exposes the impacts of this waste. Greenpeace describes “Plastic Seashores” the place these polyester-based garments pile up, washed out of different waterways, taken out to sea and returned to the sand the place they start to interrupt down into microplastics.
“Over time, the tides wash over the textiles on the seaside, in order that they turn into embedded and even buried within the sand, creating lengthy ‘tentacles’ of textile waste which attain down beneath the ocean’s floor,” the report states. As soon as these garments turn into microplastics they’re absorbed into the aquatic meals net, bioaccumulation accounting for them finally ending up being consumed by individuals in Ghana and elsewhere. This waste has opposed results on the native fishing business and as soon as pristine surf spots have turn into websites of toxicity.
Ghana is house to a fledgling surf scene and empty waves
The report additionally describes the ironic life cycle of plastic bottles as pickers wander the waste accumulating them to be recycled, shipped to China the place it’s shredded and used to make polyester clothes. This clothes is non-recyclable and finally is returned to the dumping grounds of Ghana and different African nations.
“The scenario in Ghana displays a neocolonial mindset the place the International North earnings from overproduction and waste, whereas nations like Ghana pay the worth,” the report’s creator Quashie-Idun stated. “It’s time for a world treaty that addresses this imbalance and protects communities from the hurt attributable to quick style.”
This waste has opposed results on the native fishing business and as soon as pristine surf spots have turn into websites of toxicity.
On January 1st, the largest secondhand market in Ghana’s capital of Accra, Kantamanto Market, was burned to the bottom with greater than 8,000 merchants shedding their stalls. This was a web site of innovation, with designers repurposing garments to make use of in their very own designs and discovering methods to maintain textiles out of the pure surroundings. An essential organisation doing this work is THE REVIVAL, which “collects second-hand garments which were discarded, employs native craftsmen in Kantamanto and collaborates with style college students from native universities in addition to members of the general public to take part within the creation of latest outfits and artwork to provide worth to objects tagged as ‘trash’”. THE REVIVAL has launched a web based fundraiser to assist rebuild Kantamanto Market.
Within the final twenty years, quick style has turn into a $2 trillion world business. Regardless of the ever cheapening costs, the fee is extremely excessive. Shopping for low cost garments, sporting them as soon as and donating them to charity is destroying the coastlines of nations like Ghana the place a surf tradition is simply in its fledgling stage. Making a acutely aware alternative to purchase few, however good high quality garments created from pure supplies to maintain for a lifetime could also be one of the best ways surfers might be a part of defending this treasured, undiscovered coast.
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