MCAK Calls For Unity To Tackle Challenges In Second-Hand Clothing Trade
As 2024 concludes, the Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya (MCAK) reflects on its most successful and globally impactful advocacy campaign, urging global reuse and recycling stakeholders to unite in the face of mounting challenges.
Teresia Wairimu Njenga, MCAK Chairperson, traveled extensively across the EU, UK, Ghana, and the US throughout the year, advocating for second-hand clothes traders in Kenya and around the world. At every meeting, she heard shared concerns from textile collectors, sorters, upcyclers, and recyclers facing rising costs and increasing regulations that threaten their financial viability and competitiveness against fast fashion. The European Union is at the forefront of shaping policies that will impact international supply chains, setting a global precedent with potential consequences for livelihoods in the Global South, including in Kenya, where 2 million traders and 6.2 million households rely on second-hand clothing.
In response, MCAK, with support from international partners, has endorsed several academic studies from Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda, showing that less than 5% of second-hand clothing imports are waste, effectively debunking the widely cited, but inaccurate, 40% import waste figure. MCAK urges policymakers to rely on rigorous data and research, rather than misleading information from campaigns funded by fast-fashion giants like Shein.
Misinformation about the second-hand clothing trade has been damaging, misrepresenting it as the primary driver of waste management failures. MCAK advocates for solutions that address broader issues of local waste management and recycling, as well as the overproduction of fast fashion.
Teresia Wairimu Njenga stated, “This year has been our most successful and global advocacy campaign yet. Second-hand clothes are part of the solution to textile overproduction, not the problem. They exemplify the circular economy and are vital to nations like Kenya and Ghana. Studies show that over 95% of imported second-hand clothes are not waste, yet operators face punitive taxes and regulations that threaten decades of sustainable practices.
“Policymakers must focus on supporting reuse, sorting, upcycling, and recycling, while targeting new clothing producers. The upcoming EU mandatory textile collection starting in 2025 should not be used to demonize the second-hand trade. We must resist misinformation funded by those who stand to profit from the collapse of this trade—fast fashion.
“By allowing the second-hand trade to be portrayed as the villain, some policymakers risk worsening global textile pollution.”
MCAK is the largest umbrella organization representing stakeholders in Kenya’s mitumba trade, the Swahili term for second-hand clothing.
