International sportswear and fast fashion brands Adidas, H&M Group, Inditex (Zara's parent company), and Besteller have jointly launched a collaborative project aimed at sharing the waste disposal costs generated by secondhand clothing exported to Africa.

Key Points

  • Adidas, H&M Group, Inditex, and Besteller officially formed the "Apparel Recovery Coalition" (ARC) on the 29th of last month, with Ghanaian nonprofit OR Foundation and circular economy specialist Circle Economy participating.
  • The first pilot project lands at the Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana — approximately 25 million pieces of secondhand clothing flood into this market each month, and unsold garments pile up over time, polluting soil and rivers, drawing criticism as "waste colonialism."
  • Over the next two years, ARC will carry out waste collection and cleanup, expand recycling infrastructure, and train workers, drawing on OR Foundation's 15 years of accumulated experience, while involving local traders and repairers in implementation; after the first project, new projects will be launched in at least one other country that heavily imports secondhand clothing.

Africa's Waste Clothing Crisis Spurs Cross-Border Cost-Sharing Mechanism

The above four global fashion companies will jointly intervene in Africa's secondhand clothing waste management, with the alliance named the "Apparel Recovery Coalition" (ARC), targeting textile waste reduction and circular system building. In addition to the four brands, the coalition's participants include the Ghana-based OR Foundation and Circle Economy, an organization focused on the circular economy.

First Stop Chosen at the "Hardest-Hit" Kantamanto

ARC's first pilot project lands at the Kantamanto Market in Ghana's capital, Accra. This market receives approximately 25 million pieces of secondhand clothing each month, and a large number of garments that cannot be resold ultimately become waste, piling up and causing ongoing pollution to local soil and water systems. The market has long been labeled with the criticism of "waste colonialism" for taking in discarded clothing from developed countries.

Two-Year Action: Collection, Recycling, and Training in Parallel

According to the plan, ARC will advance three areas of work over the next two years: waste collection and cleanup, expansion of recycling infrastructure, and training for relevant workers. The implementation will draw on OR Foundation's 15 years of hands-on experience locally, and will have local traders and repairers directly participate in project execution rather than merely being passive recipients of aid. After completing the first project in Ghana, ARC also plans to launch new projects in at least one other country that heavily imports secondhand clothing, extending this cost-sharing model to more regions.

Industry Impact

For the secondhand clothing export chain, the emergence of this coalition means that some brands are beginning to directly intervene in the end-of-life disposal of their products in recipient countries. Unlike mere policy pressure or donation efforts, ARC attempts to respond to the waste overflow problem of Africa's secondhand clothing market through cost and technology sharing — this move may provide a replicable multi-stakeholder collaboration model for the secondhand clothing export industry.

Source: H&M·자라, 아프리카 의류 폐기물 처리비 분담 연합 출범 · Originally published on 2026-10-14