A Second Life for Fashion: Used Clothing

A shopping mall in New Jersey displays T-shirts in a vibrant palette which looks trendy and is an up-to-date fashion. Far away in an African country, a young man happily strolls through a market wearing a T-shirt with an American logo printed on it. Though seemingly irrelevant, both panoramas are interconnected with each other through a line of clothing. How does clothing which is originally sold in the US end up in the clothing shelf of an African lad? Globalization and recycling of used clothing work together to make this possible. The journey of a garment does not end as a landfill all the time. They may be recycled in two ways; either it will be sold again as used clothing or will be shredded and mechanically recycled into raw material for the manufacture of other recycled apparel products.

A resale or used or second hand clothing encompasses the following:

• Classic Vintage: Here garments from the past eras are sold.
• Thrift: where storefronts like Salvation Army, and flea markets sell used clothing.
• Consignment: where clothes that are 1 to 2 years old and are in good condition are sold individually through the owners through stores that share a percentage of the sale price. This is good option to buy designer clothes at a lesser price.

After the trade liberalization in the 90s, there has been a remarkable increase in the demand for used clothes. Cities like London, and Philadelphia export used clothing in 50 kilogram bales through their wholesalers. Mostly used clothing is being exported from US, and to African countries like Cameroon, Ghana, and Benin. T-shirts, bins and trousers are sorted first, and then quality garments are taken to vintage stores for resale. The bales are transported for a long distance to be sold to the local vendors. Majority of the people in many developing countries wear used clothes on a daily basis. Countries on the bottom of the economic scale like Zambia rely on imported second hand clothing. The wardrobes of many families in Zambia have only used clothing. A survey conducted in US states that approximately 15% of the discarded clothing is given for resale, and around 12-15% of the Americans shop for their clothing at the resale stores.

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