In a sprawling secondhand clothing market in Ghana’s capital, early morning shoppers jostle as they search through piles of garments, eager to pluck a bargain or a designer find from the stalls selling used apparel from the West. Ghana is one of Africa’s leading importers of used clothing, with millions of items arriving in bulk each week. But neither Ghana’s fast-growing population nor its overtaxed infrastructure is equipped to absorb that much cast-off attire. Mounds of textile waste litter beaches across the city of Accra and a lagoon which empties into the Gulf of Guinea. A nonprofit foundation is trying to disrupt a cycle that has made Western overconsumption into an environmental problem in Africa
