In 2021, the EU sent over 112 million second-hand clothing items to Kenya, with at least 37 million containing synthetic materials, according to research by Clean Up Kenya and Wildlight for the Changing Markets Foundation.

Of the 900 million garments received by Kenya from around the world, over 56 million were either dirty or unusable. The report's findings were based on an analysis of 4,000 used clothing items found in Kenyan markets, compared with data from the country's customs records.

Each year, tons of clothing produced by fast fashion addiction are directly dumped in African landfills, causing severe health and environmental problems. Exporting plastic waste from the EU is already restricted and soon to be banned, but over one-third of second-hand clothing shipped to Kenya contained plastic and was of poor quality, becoming landfill waste. The solution is not to shut down the used clothing trade but to transform it, banning recycling companies from exporting junk clothing, says George Handing-Rolls, head of campaigns at Changing Markets Foundation.

The cost of clothing in EU countries has fallen from 30% of household expenditure in the 1950s to just 5% in 2020, thanks to the use of synthetic materials, which are cheaper than natural ones. Consumers are now buying 60% more clothing than they did 15 years ago, and each EU citizen throws away an average of 15 kilos of textiles a year, despite keeping them for only half the time. According to petrochemical industry experts, the use of synthetic materials such as polyester and nylon has quadrupled since 1980 and accounts for 69% of all textile fibers used in clothing production.

Germany, Belgium, France, the UK, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Estonia, and Ireland accounted for 95% of all second-hand clothing exports from the EU to Kenya, with Germany being the top exporter, sending over 50 million clothing items, of which over 25 million were waste and almost 17 million were plastic-based.