On the 2th of January a huge fire devastated 60% of Ghana’s Kantamanto Market, where every month 60 million of unsold or used fashion products come from Western markets. More than half of them played an important role in a mechanism of circular economy. What will happen now?
by Massimiliano Viti
The fire that, on the 2th of January, has destroyed more than 60% of the 70.000 square meters of the Kantamanto Market, located in Ghana, touches us closely. As stated by a group of activists, this is a responsibility that at least should be shared with the fashion industry of the USA, Europe and Australia. Exactly from these places every month 60 million of unsold or used fashion products are shipped to Kantamanto in order to, potentially, be repositioned on the market, while 40% goes straight into the garbage. At the Market, the effort was to create a more and more circular supply chain, with the aim of reducing the percentage of waste. Now, the catastrophic fire threatens to reset everything, or nearly.
The Kantamanto market fire
Every month, at the end of the operations of retail, reuse, restoration and production, at the Kantamanto Market was being recycled a volume of products that was able to employ 30.000 people circa. This massive secondhand market, considered the biggest of Western Africa – and among the largest in the world – has burned down on the 2th of January. At least 8.000 vendors (even if someone states 10.000) have directly dealt with the consequences of “the biggest disaster registered in the 15 years of the Market’s life”, as claimed by Or Foundation, a nonprofit organization based between the USA and Ghana, whose aim is to create a “justice-led circular economy”. The organization has been working in the Kantamanto Market since 2016. A disaster of enormous proportions for the local community, but even for the fashion industry.
Creating a circular system
Daniel Mawuli Quist, creative director of Or Foundation, has declared to Sourcing Journal that “while the fashion industry often touts sustainability as a buzzword or marketing tactic, Kantamanto proves that true sustainability is about more than just new sales. It’s about creating a circular system that values every part of the value chain”. (source sourcingjournal.com).
A Challenge to waste
Katya Moorman, founder of No Kill, a journal about sustainable fashion, is much more direct. In an Instagram post she claims: “The Kantamanto Market is a cornerstone for sustainability. It challenges the fashion industry’s wasteful practices and mechanisms. This cycle has relevant consequences on communities, like Kantamanto, where the workers take on the responsibility related to the repercussions of overproduction. If these brands are able to generate billions in profits, they can – and should – contribute to the rebuilding of livelihoods of the people affected by their practices”.
And now?
Also because, without the Kantamanto Market, how and where will the fashion industry dispose of its overproduction? Even if the consequences of the fire still need to be completely determined, the question is if the biggest fashion brands should foot the bill for the disaster. In case of a negative answer, they should modify their strategies, generating a decrease in overproduction. “Local communities can’t and shouldn’t deal with this alone. Companies must fully extend their producer responsibility”, as written in an Instagram post by the Swiss designer, specialized in upcycling, Rafael Kouto. Dounia Wone, Chief Impact Officer of Vestiaire Collective, underlines to Forbes that: “Kantamanto Market represents both the challenges and the opportunities for sustainable fashion. Now more than ever, this tragedy reminds us of the urgent need to rethink how the global fashion system works” (source forbes.com)
Not to interrupt, but to regulate
A proposition, in these terms, comes from Baptiste Lingoungou, president of the association La Mode Européenne. Lingoungou considers Africa as “the dump of Europe’s textile waste”, but declares himself against the interruption of the shipping of the clothes. It is better to regulate it. How? In various ways. First: the articles of clothing that arrive in Africa need to be accurately selected, in order to avoid the shipping of unusable waste. Second: Europe should allocate funds with the aim of managing in a sustainable way the textile waste in Africa. Third: the launch of a long-term partnership in order to build strong infrastructures. Fourth: sustain the local industrialization, with investments focused on recycling facilities. Fifth: start the collaboration with eco-organisms as Refashion. Finally, probably the most difficult challenge: to fight against disposable fashion (source fashionunited.it). A true mission impossible.
Images taken from the Instagram account of The Or Foundation.
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