The reality of exported second hand clothing
Over 86% of garments sampled at Ghanian market arrived damaged. 

 
European households discard millions of tons of clothing each year and around a quarter of what gets separately collected is exported, with much of it classified as rewearable.
A significant share ends up in markets like Kantamanto in Accra, Ghana, where an estimated 15 million garments arrive every week. New research reveals what happens when that clothing arrives.
The Sorting for Circularity: Project Rewear report, published by Fashion for Good and Circle Economy, follows a year-long investigation into the real mechanics of the global secondhand clothing system. The research combines quantitative garment analysis across four EU countries, original fieldwork conducted by local partners in Ghana and Pakistan, and three innovation pilots exploring the practical and economic viability of repair, AI-powered sorting, and digital aftersales infrastructure.
A key finding is that that most of these discarded clothes are wearable. Of 8,280 garments examined across four EU countries, 37% had no damage and 41% had one minor flaw. The barrier to rewear is therefore economic, not material.
However, over 86% of the garments sampled at Ghana’s Kantamanto Market arrived damaged, despite being exported as rewearable, leaving traders who had purchased bales without any guarantee of contents to absorb the full financial and environmental cost of unsellable stock.
The economics of circularity are also shiftable. AI-powered sorting modelled a profit shift from zero to €6.5 million annually for a mid-sized facility. Repair works well for outerwear and denim, but for fast fashion basics, costs consistently outweigh resale value.
The report concludes that rewear alone is certainly not the answer. Without reducing production, circular strategies risk functioning as a parallel market rather than a systemic solution.
 

♦ References

►www.fashionforgood.com

►https://innovationintextiles.com
Fashion for Good – Sorting for Circularity: Project Rewear 
Circle Economy – Circular Textile Systems Reports 
Global Textile Industry Reports (2024–2026)

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