The fashion industry claims to be on a mission to promote a circular economy, or one where garments and materials are kept in use longer—perhaps by changing hands through resale, or being upcycled or recycled into new products.
But are these well-intentioned plans having their desired effect? Or are circularity schemes just creating more diverse streams for brands to hide their waste?
During the opening panel for Textile Exchange in Pasadena this week, experts from the Or Foundation Ghana and Patagonia spoke to the fact that overproduction is still alive and well in the textile and apparel sector. What’s more, the astronomically high volume of fashion discards are having adverse effects on communities across the globe, well beyond their “end markets.”
Or Foundation co-founder and executive director Liz Ricketts said the Accra-based non-profit has been working with the secondhand sales economy in Ghana to find solutions for the waves of waste that threaten to suffocate local industry.