The hidden health risks facing clothing recyclers in a world flooded with plastic fibres

Not too long ago, every morning would have found Linda seated beside her friend, Ruth Odom, at their small stalls in Accra’s Kantamanto Market, one of the largest second-hand clothing markets in the world.

Before them lay piles of garments in different colours and sizes, polo shirts, jeans, dresses and shirts, packed in bales and ready to be given a second life, resized and reshaped for Ghanaian buyers.

The so-called “fast fashion” brands such as Primark, H&M, Georges, Nike, Puma, GAP and Old Navy are familiar names in Europe and the United States, where these items were first worn.

Those days are gone. Both women have abandoned the trade, fearful of the health impact of their work. Linda, whose religious beliefs prevent her from speaking to the media, asked that her last name be withheld. 

“It started when Linda began feeling unwell and losing weight continuously, which worried all of us,” said Ruth, in her native Twi. “Several visits to the hospital showed a deposit of ‘dust’ in her lungs.”

Linda quit nearly a decade of work at Kantamanto immediately. Following her doctor’s advice and taking medication improved her health. 

Her experience reflects a wider, largely unseen health risk facing thousands of workers in Ghana’s second-hand clothing markets.

At Kantamanto alone, an estimated 15 million pieces of used clothing pass through every week. 

Most of these imported clothes are made from synthetic materials like polyester and nylon. As bales are opened, shaken, cut and reworked, they release microscopic plastic fibres into the air. 

Traders inhale these particles daily, often without protection or awareness.

Behind Kantamanto’s colours and commerce, experts say, the real cost of fast fashion is quietly being paid with traders’ health.

Last April, Ruth, Linda and other women learned how dangerous this exposure is. The Or Foundation, a Ghana-based organisation advocating for workers in Kantamanto, commissioned scientific tests to assess microfiber levels in workers’ bodies. Preliminary findings were concerning.

“I can tell you that we have done some sampling of spit and of urine and we have even actually looked at feces. We have looked at breast milk. I can tell you broadly that we have found microfibers in all of that,” said Mr Branson Skinner, a co-founder of the foundation. 

Tests also detected restricted lung function among many traders, with symptoms including shortness of breath, wheezing and persistent coughing. Four in every five workers reported eye problems such as irritation, conjunctivitis and difficulty reading labels.

Mr Skinner cautioned that the results are still preliminary, with analysis ongoing. Analysis is ongoing. “As we wait to publish the results, our focus is on improving access to healthcare for market members as the need is clear.”

GNA also tested the air pollution in the market with a portable sensor (Atmotub). Over seven Saturdays the device consistently showed pollution of the most dangerous air pollution particles at the second highest of five levels, meaning the air was “very polluted. It may cause respiratory illness in people on prolonged exposure.”

Experts explain that when inhaled, tiny microfibres can lodge deep in the lungs, triggering irritation, coughing and respiratory stress. 

Many fibres carry chemical dyes and additives that increase toxic load on the body. The smallest particles can enter the bloodstream, affecting organs and worsening conditions including diabetes, heart disease, infertility and cancer. 

Microfibres could contribute to blindness, through eye irritation, infection and long-term damage.

“Microfibres are largely chemical in nature. When it seen in traders’ secretions, it means their work environment has become hazardous,” said Dr Louisa Ademki Matey, Municipal Director of Health at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. 

She described the Or Foundations findings as alarming.

“The presence of microfibres in fecal matter suggests ingestion, which can lead to bowel irritation and frequent defecation,” Dr Matey said. 

She added that chemical exposure from microfibres may increase the risk of serious diseases, including cancer, if immune responses become excessive.

Dr Matey warned that children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable. Children may develop digestive disorders, while exposure during pregnancy could harm unborn babies and increase the risk of miscarriage or stillbirth.

Checks made by the GNA found thrift traders working in Kumasi, Tamale, Cape Coast and Takoradi in similar conditions with no protections.

The pollutants also contaminate soil and waterways, putting thousands more at risk. 

With Ghana’s poor waste systems, large amounts of damaged or unsold clothing are dumped or burned, allowing microfibres to spread through nearby communities and waterways. 

The fibres can carry harmful chemicals and pollute rivers and the sea, where fish and other animals ingest them. 

Expert say this pollution threatens fishing livelihoods and public health.

Large volumes of second-hand clothing enter Ghana because wealthy countries produce far more clothing than they need. 

So-called “fast-fashion” brands make cheap garments, often containing synthetic materials that shed harmful microplastics and wear out quickly. 

In countries such as the United Kingdom, the average person buys about 44 new items of clothing each year, discarding clothes at an increasingly fast rate. 

As a result, charities and clothing collectors in Europe and North America are left with large amounts of low-quality donations, which they sell to traders instead of recycling.

Many of these unwanted garments are placed in donation bins and then exported to markets like Kantamanto.

Advocates say this practice unfairly shifts the environmental burden of waste and pollution onto low-income countries that are least equipped to manage it.

Ghana has become a major destination for this trade.

In 2021, it was the world’s largest importer of used clothing, with $214 million worth of garments entering the country. 

Accra has also become a major dumping ground for electronic waste from wealthier countries, compounding the city’s environmental challenges.

Experts warn the problem is only growing. “It is a volumes over value business model that is threatening to collapse the global secondhand trade, including markets like Kantamanto,” said Skinner.“Polyester, which has no growth cycle and is therefore cheaper and seemingly unlimited compared to cotton, is the root of the issue. People should be very concerned because there are no solutions to the growing amount of plastic clothing. No country has the infrastructure to manage its textile waste but the Global North, which overconsumes fast fashion, uses the secondhand clothing trade as an outlet so that they do not have to face the consequences of this problem.” 

Ghana’s government is in a bind. The industry provides a livelihood for thousands of poor people in Ghana that is not easily replaced. 

“The waste we collect from Kantamato has increased by more than fourfold,” said Mr Solomon Noi, director of Waste Management at the Accra Metropolitan Assembly. 

“This is being compounded by fast fashion. Our dump site is getting full fast and if care is not taken, we will find it difficult to get a place to dump our waste”. 

On a recent visit to the market, vendors shouted out their prices and called to shoppers. 

Tailors sat in dim corridors stitching torn hems and transforming rejected clothing into wearable pieces. 

Laundry workers scrubbed stubborn stains until their hands burned, while others bathed in sweat as they pressed cloths.

Designers bent over heaps of discarded garments, searching for hidden gems to upcycle into bold fashion while “Kanta” boys, who clean up the waste, load it onto the track to be sent to the landfills site every night.

This is the daily reality for thousands of actors in Kantamanto Market. All of them are at risk.

“All the people in the value chain are exposed,” said Mr Desmond Appiah, country lead of the UK based charity the Clean Air Fund.

“The bales are often compacted so as soon as it is open the pollutants emerge. Both patrons and sellers shake these cloths unknowing of the concerning health consequences. Some of these clothing is almost at the end of life and comes with other health hazards apart from the exposure. It has health cost.” 

The Or Foundation has supported many traders like Ruth by providing training and financing some basic health cost like providing spectacles to traders with eyes issues.

Ruth took a step back to learn new ways to make use of waste fabric in a less hazardous way. 

The Or Foundation trained her and others to produce boxershorts, tote bags, hats, laptop covers and different types of yarns made from cotton which is much safer. 

Linda is now engaged in petty trading of daily household items such as soap, tinned food, oil and rice. 

She is not making as much money as she would have in Kantamato but says her health is her priority. 

But not everyone has the option of leaving the industry. Without help retraining in new livelihoods Ruth and Linda said they would have had no choice but to keep getting sick. 

Experts say that, at a minimum, traders should be wearing nosemasks, goggles and gloves and ensuring there is plenty of ventilation when they work with the fabrics. 

They are encouraged to exercise regularly, visit the hospital to assess their health especially, eyes, blood pressure and lung function. 

The government has drafted a bill labeled the Extender Producer Responsibility Law. 

It is meant to make the companies that make or import products take responsibility for the waste those products create. 

Under the law, businesses that bring electronics, plastics, packaging, or other goods into Ghana must help pay for their collection, recycling, and safe disposal when they become waste. 

Importantly, this includes second-hand goods from abroad, because importers are treated the same as producers. 

The money collected is used to support safer recycling systems and reduce harmful practices like open burning, which damage health and the environment. 

The idea is simple: instead of leaving communities and the government to deal with pollution, the companies that profit from these products should help manage the waste they leave behind.

“We have developed a first draft with the involvement with the World Bank which is about to be discussed,” saidLawrence Kotoe Deputy Director Petroleum at the Environmental Protection Agency. Kotoe expects the bill to go to parliament before the end of the year. 

While the bill would provide funding when passed, the Ghana Garment and textiles roadmap seeks to promote a “circular economy” that reuses, repairs, and recycles instead of wasting.

It will be a bridge between policy and action guiding the country’s transition according to Mr Godfred Fiifi Boadi, Head of Climate Action Sustainability and Partnership at the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs. 

Mr Appiah acknowledged the importance of regulations in the reducing exposure of thrift business actor to air pollution, but said government must lead with the development of infrastructure and not cede its responsibility to the private sector. 

(This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the Clean Air Reporting Project. Funding was provided by the Clean Air Fund, which had no influence on the content.)

Source: GNA