NL residents' discarded clothes causing severe plastic pollution in Kenya: study

Some of the millions of items of clothing that Netherlands residents and other Europeans discard every year cause serious plastic pollution in Kenya. Dirty and damaged clothing ends up as fuel in peanut burner ovens, overflowing landfills, and the Nairobi River, the Changing Markets Foundation said in a report published on Thursday. The organization wants to ban this “under-the-radar waste stream.”

The researchers looked at European export data and had two Kenyan organizations conduct on-site inspections. They visited landfills, photographed mounds of discarded textiles in river water, and talked to clothing merchants and workers.

In 2021, about 900 million used garments were shipped to Kenya, according to the researchers. Based on samples and interviews with traders, up to half of all used clothing exported to the African country can be classified as waste. Roughly two-thirds of these contain plastic, like polyester. In the reviewed year, the Netherlands exported over 1 million kilograms of used textiles to Kenya, about 5.4 million clothing items.

The large amounts of textile waste are poorly processed, according to the report. Microplastics from clothing pollute the soil, air, and water and eventually end up in the ocean, the researchers said. The Nairobi River flows into the Indian ocean.

The Netherlands is responsible for about 8 percent of the millions of tons of second-hand textiles that leave the EU and the United Kingdom every year. Germany, the most populous country, tops the list with almost a quarter of the total.

Traders in Kenya try to resell the best garments for a bargain price. Leftover rags often end up burned, for example, by peanut burners, traders told the researchers.

Burning clothing releases plastic particles into the air, and residents inhale the smoke. “That inevitably poses health risks,” the researchers said. Several waste sorters told them that they had asthma or other breathing problems.

In addition to Kenya, Europe exports discarded clothing to Ghana, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan. According to the report’s authors, it is clear that wealthy countries “need to take action to stop sending textile waste to the global south.” According to the Changing Markets Foundation, western countries should consult with the countries that ultimately get the clothing about the role of developing countries in the circular economy, in which clothing is reused in a sustainable manner.