The fast changing fashion taste in the country means that tonnes worth of clothes that can still be worn are discarded, wasting precious materials.
This has led to massive environmental pollution, with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) revealing that the clothes industry is responsible for eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Used clothing from Europe and other more developed states arrive at countries such as Kenya and Uganda via East Africa’s ports.
Containers are opened and bales transported to warehousing before heading for large ‘mitumba’ markets such as Gikomba in Nairobi.
After that, clothing spreads to smaller marketplaces and street vendors.
What cannot be sold ultimately ends up being discarded, littering water ways and the dump sites.
This has seen clothes worth $460 billion (Sh61 trillion) discarded globally every year, with most of it ending up in landfills in Africa.
Kenya has increasingly become overburdened as more used apparel enter the country and there aren't any end-of-life options in place.
According to Greenpeace, every day in Kenya, about 150 to 200 tonnes of textile waste ends up being dumped, burnt, or sent to overflowing dump sites. This is between 60 to 75 truckloads.
In an effort to address this issue, and build an inclusive textile value chain Africa Collects Textiles (ATC) was born with the main aim of tapping into the waste textiles and modelling them to forms that can be re used.
Alex Musembi the co-founder and General Manager at ATC says that Kenya imports more than 200 million kilograms of second hand clothing from abroad, with Nairobi alone polluting 20 million Kgs of textile annually.
By establishing business divisions for the collection, sorting, recycling, upselling, and reselling of used clothing and footwear, the firm says it is taking steps to a circular economy.
ATC was founded in 2013, where it has implemented a model for collecting and processing used textiles. It however began commercial operations in 2019.
“Africa Collect Textiles upcycles textile waste into rugs, pencil bags and other products which it sells locally while also exporting to Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands,” Musembi says.
One of the standout products has been the bags and the mats which are handwoven from Khaki and jeans with the largest size going for Sh128,000.
So far they have collected 78,130 kilograms of used textiles which have been given a new life into rugs, handbags, pencil bags, denim, sandals, and many other products.
He says that their goal is to increase accessibility to inexpensive clothing, recyclable waste streams, and employment opportunities while also laying the groundwork for a circular fashion business that seeks reducing the amount of textile waste dumped in landfills.
Despite an investment of close to Sh2 million in the 35 collection points lack of knowledge from textile traders is still emerging as one of the greatest hindrance to increase.
A spot-check by The Star across various traders in the city revealed an increasing amount of junk clothing arriving in the country.
Traders at City Stadium area said the clothing they receive is often soiled with vomit, heavy stains or animal hair some of which cannot be worn in the state forcing them to either dye them or dispose them off.
Musembi acknowledges that this has been a challenge as low quality textiles that cannot be upcycled continue to penetrate the country.
“We have been running the organisation from 2020 to 2022 as the first phase where we have been setting up most basic infrastructures. In the new phase 2023 and beyond is an equity investment,” said Musembi.
Through funding from donor firms the company is looking to scale up its operations this year targeting to recycle 250, 000kgs of waste textiles annually before the end of the year and grow to half a million by 2024.
Through a funding commitment of $143,000 (Sh18.7 million) from Impacc, an organisation that supports social and sustainable enterprises in fragile markets, the company will now be able to scale up from the 50,000 kilograms of textile it collects annually.
So far the company has raised €197, 300 (Sh28.3 million) in its first phase of growth from the Dune Foundation 160, 700 euros, E4Impact Accelerator programme from Italy 6,600 euros and Dutch government through the RVO, 30,000 euros.
“In this second phase we are having an equity investment with Impacc and Dune Foundation who came in 2023 to grow our operations,” added Musembi.
Despite efforts by various regional governments to try and contain the influx of mitumba clothing in the region, Environmental lobby group Greenpeace Africa says it's been difficult for sub-Saharan countries to ban second hand clothes from the US because they have struck preferential trade deals with America.
An estimated 10 per cent of Kenya's employment, or at least 2 million people, are directly engaged by the second-hand clothing (mitumba) sector, with about 24 million individuals purchasing used clothing each year.
According to a report conducted by Clean Up Kenya titled Trashion, the stealth export of waste plastic clothes to Kenya, more than 900 million items were exported to Kenya in 2021, with up to 458 million estimated to have been unsellable and 300 million containing plastic-based fibres.
This essentially means that without the investment to enable firms recycle such materials, they will end up at the dumpsites.
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