[ketanmaheshwari]

If you are curious, like me, as to what 'mitumba' means, it is simply a local word for used clothing. I thought it had some deeper cultural meaning.

[stevage]

Donating used clothing contributes to the used clothing problem. Story at 10.

[pas]

There's not even a story. As income levels rise people will start buying/using less and less used clothes out of necessity.

[stevage]

Well that's the story. Already the value of secondhand clothes in Africa has gone way down as people have access to the internet and can see they are not the latest fashion.

Clothes that won't be worn should be recycled in the country of origin, not sent to Africa to be dumped in landfill.

[pas]

How are the donated clothes getting there if there's no real demand? Are there clueless importers and NGOs with money to burn? :o

[stevage]

I think they can sell enough to make it worthwhile, and disposing of the rest is extremely cheap because of the lack environmental regulations etc.

[pas]

but that means people are buying it. it's arguably good that they have this option.

and if there is a problem with waste, then that should be addressed, not the import.

[chimpanzee]

> If used clothing is the problem, why not prohibit it altogether? The answer is that countries tried. In 2016, a group of East African countries joined forces to ban imports of secondhand clothing. In retaliation, the Trump administration threatened to remove the countries from the program that is at the core of U.S.-Africa trade policy if they followed through. No surprise that a lobby group representing used clothing sorters backed the move. The only country that stood firm was Rwanda and, to this day, its duty-free apparel benefits under AGOA remain suspended.

[pas]

there's no point in banning it. clothing is extremely well suited for a market-based solution.

if there are problems with waste and recycling then that's an argument for taxing it and using that revenue to fund waste management.