T e x t i l e I n d u s t r y N e w s o n r e u s e , r e c y c l i n g a n d c i r c u l a r i t y

The NGO behind the textile waste narrative and the millions of dollars that followed

SPECIAL REPORT

Reuse News has previously found that some of the most widely cited claims about textile waste remain unverified. We also found that sites frequently presented as evidence of a textile waste crisis in Ghana consist predominantly of other forms of waste.

This article examines the NGO behind those claims, its role in shaping the global textile waste debate, and the millions of dollars that followed.

Reuse News has previously found that some of the most widely cited claims about textile waste remain unverified. We also found that sites frequently presented as evidence of a textile waste crisis in Ghana consist predominantly of other forms of waste.

This article examines the NGO behind those claims, its role in shaping the global textile waste debate, and the millions of dollars that followed.

The global second-hand trade is not a charity system. It is a business built on buying, sorting, shipping and reselling products across continents. Every bale imported into Ghana has already passed through collectors, sorters, exporters, shipping companies, customs, wholesalers and traders. At every stage, somebody pays.

The missing logic behind the textile waste claims

What looks like textile waste is actually not. It's plastic.

Mountains textile waste. That image has travelled the world — repeated, amplified and turned into a defining narrative about textile waste in Africa. But when we went there, the picture changed completely. What had been described as textile waste was mostly something else.