China discards billions of used garments every year. These clothes are collected through donation boxes, scrap recycling stations, and internet recycling platforms, and most are not sent to poor mountainous areas in China but are baled and sold to Africa. A used garment that costs less than 1 yuan to recover can sell for at least 20 yuan in African markets, an increase of about 20 times. Mr. Sun, a businessman from Fujian who sells second-hand clothing in Africa, claims he can "earn about 200,000 yuan a day."

Key Points

  • Each person in China discards three to four used garments per year, totaling billions nationwide annually. Recycling channels include donation boxes, scrap recycling stations, and internet recycling.
  • Second-hand summer clothing is purchased at about 5,000 yuan per ton, and exporting it to Africa can yield a profit of up to 3,190 yuan per ton. Women's underwear yields even double that profit.
  • Kenya's textile workers have plummeted from 500,000 before the 1980s to just over 20,000 today; a garment factory in Kigali, Rwanda, halved from 1,100 workers in the 1990s.

This industrial chain has already formed a complete closed loop in China: collection, transportation, sorting, and sales. A young couple in Jinan, Shandong, earns about 1,000 yuan a day from used clothing recycling. Sorting factories mainly select summer clothing based on African climate preferences, bale it, and buy it for export at about 5,000 yuan per ton, with profits of up to 3,190 yuan per ton. Women's underwear, due to strong demand, yields double that profit.

After the goods arrive in Africa, local distributors sort, disinfect, wash, and tailor them before resale. Second-hand clothing markets in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, and other countries are packed with wholesalers every day, who even need connections to get first pick. In Africa, a used garment sells for at least 20 yuan, an appreciation of about 20 times, and many Chinese merchants have made their fortunes there. African countries have lagging economies and low per capita incomes, and about 80% of the population has worn second-hand clothing. On the streets, T-shirts with Chinese characters such as "Chengdu No.7 High School," "Huidong Vocational Middle School," and "Ele.me" are often seen, and some Chinese tourists in Africa even encounter "alumni" wearing their own school uniforms.

But the other side of low prices is the shrinking of local industries. Kenya had 500,000 textile workers before 1980, but now has only just over 20,000 due to the impact of second-hand clothing; a garment factory in Kigali, Rwanda's capital, had 1,100 workers in the 1990s, but after more than 20 years of declining sales, only half remain; Senegal, a West African country once famous for its fine fabrics and excellent tailors, now sees people wearing mostly second-hand clothes. The female owner of a Kenyan shoe factory publicly complained in an interview with the American media outlet PragerU: "Come on, do people really think we Africans can't even make clothes and shoes? Please stop destroying Africa's economy with these cheap second-hand goods!"

Faced with dissatisfaction from local businesses, East African Community countries such as Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda announced bans on importing used textiles a few years ago. But a few years later, most East African countries except Rwanda abandoned the bans and turned to tax measures to regulate the impact of second-hand textiles. Some analyses point out that Africa's textile industry is not as strong as local entrepreneurs and government officials believe. Many countries lack funds, technology, and parts, have poor infrastructure, and suffer frequent power outages, making production difficult. At the same time, the second-hand clothing trade has operated in Africa for more than 20 years, and a large population depends on related processing and sales for their livelihoods. If imports were banned, these people would lose their source of income, and African economies have already become heavily dependent on second-hand clothing. For African countries, revitalizing local industries requires wiser and more comprehensive consideration: they cannot easily deprive poor groups of their means of subsistence, but must also face constraints such as war, corruption, and labor force quality.

Source: The old clothes donated by Chinese people are killing Africa's economy? · Originally published on 2022-05-17