Kenya’s taste for second-hand clothes is creating mountains of waste
By Yusuf Abdalla
Kenya has emerged as one of Africa’s largest importers of second hand clothing, with volumes rising sharply in recent years. Once garments arrive at Mombasa’s port, they move through clearing agents, warehouses, and wholesalers before reaching informal markets such as Gikomba, Toi, and City Stadium. The trade supports more than two million livelihoods, ranging from importers and traders to tailors and waste pickers.
Not all imports are fit for resale. Independent research suggests that between 20 and 50 percent of shipments ultimately become waste. Traders and activists describe bales filled with skiing gear or winter coats, items of little use in Kenya’s climate. Critics argue that much of the trade amounts to plastic waste in disguise, as synthetic garments degrade quickly and cannot be reused.
Industry representatives dispute these findings. The Mitumba Consortium Association of Kenya insists that only a small fraction of imports are unsellable, citing internal surveys that put waste levels at 1 to 2 percent. This divergence underscores the lack of consensus on the scale of the problem and complicates policy design.
Environmental and public health consequences
Discarded clothing often ends up in landfills, informal dumps, or is incinerated. Burning synthetic fabrics releases toxic fumes, exposing waste pickers and nearby communities to respiratory risks. Waterways near disposal sites absorb dyes, microfibres, and chemical residues, threatening aquatic ecosystems and human health.
Sites such as Nairobi’s Dandora dumpsite have become emblematic of the crisis, receiving large volumes of textile waste daily and compounding sanitation and pollution challenges. The accumulation of textile waste has turned areas around waste management sites into environmental hazards, with communities facing heightened risks of disease and reduced quality of life.
Impact on domestic manufacturing
While second hand clothing provides affordable garments, its dominance has weakened domestic textile manufacturing. Local producers argue that cheap imports depress demand for locally made apparel, undermining investment in cotton farming, garment production, and skills development. The sector’s reliance on imports has created structural imbalances, leaving domestic factories struggling to compete on price and scale.
The long term consequence is a hollowing out of local industry. Kenya once had a more vibrant textile sector, but the influx of low cost imports has eroded competitiveness. Without targeted investment and policy support, the country risks losing the capacity to build resilient value chains that can generate employment and industrial growth.
Calls for reform and circular economy approaches
Environmental groups describe Kenya as a textile dumping ground and call for structural reforms. Proposals include waste collection points, recycling infrastructure, and accountability mechanisms similar to Extended Producer Responsibility regimes. These frameworks would require producers and importers to take responsibility for end of life management of garments, shifting costs away from communities and municipalities.
Social enterprises have begun experimenting with upcycling, salvaging unwanted garments for reuse or material recovery. Though small in scale, these initiatives demonstrate the potential of circular economy models to turn waste into value. By repurposing textiles into new products, entrepreneurs show that waste can be reframed as a resource rather than a liability.
Challenges to implementation
Reform faces several obstacles. Conflicting data on waste volumes complicates policy design. Recycling machinery faces a 35 percent import duty, limiting local capacity. Informal market actors resist regulations that could raise costs or add bureaucratic burdens. The absence of systematic record keeping hampers monitoring and evaluation.
The informal nature of much of the second hand clothing trade makes it difficult to track resale, disposal, or recycling outcomes. Without reliable data, policymakers cannot accurately assess the scale of the problem or design interventions that match the magnitude of waste.
Financial barriers loom large. Establishing textile waste collection and recycling systems requires substantial investment. Processing used garments, especially those made from mixed or synthetic fibres, demands sorting, cleaning, and technology that are currently limited in Kenya. The duty on recycling machinery discourages private sector investment, leaving the country dependent on ad hoc initiatives rather than systemic solutions.
Balancing affordability, livelihoods, and sustainability
Supporters of the trade emphasize its role in providing affordable clothing and sustaining millions of livelihoods. For many Kenyans, second hand clothing is the only affordable option. The sector offers income opportunities for importers, wholesalers, market traders, tailors, and informal waste collectors.
Critics counter that unmanaged textile waste imposes long term costs. Pollution, health risks, and lost industrial potential may outweigh short term benefits. The challenge is to balance affordability and livelihoods with sustainability and resilience. Policymakers must weigh the immediate economic benefits of cheap imports against the environmental and social costs of unmanaged waste.
Expert backed recommendations
The following recommendations reflect the consensus of expert institutions and researchers who have examined Kenya’s textile waste challenge and circularity options:
- National strategy and standards: Experts at the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme and the European Union, call for a national textile waste management strategy that defines textile waste, sets collection and disposal standards, maps responsibilities, and establishes enforcement provisions. This provides a coherent framework that aligns national and county actions.
- Urban pilots for recycling and reuse: Multistakeholder dialogues convened by policy and academic experts recommend pilot programs in major urban centers to test sorting, mechanical recycling, fiber recovery, and safe disposal. Pilots should measure technical performance, unit costs, contamination rates, and community outcomes to inform scale up decisions.
- Investment incentives and equipment costs: Researchers and policy specialists propose fiscal incentives for private sector participation, including reduced import duties on recycling machinery, accelerated depreciation for circular economy equipment, and credit lines for small and medium enterprises that adopt reuse and repair models. Lowering capital barriers is essential to build local capacity.
- Data and transparency standards: Experts emphasize the need for consistent data collection across the import to resale to disposal chain. Recommended measures include bale quality audits, standardized reporting for municipal waste handlers, and public dashboards that track volumes and outcomes. Better data reduces uncertainty and enables targeted interventions.
- Industrial policy for domestic manufacturing: Economic analysts advocate for coordinated investment in cotton cultivation, textile mills, garment production, and skills development. Time bound procurement preferences and cluster based industrial parks can help rebuild competitiveness and reduce dependence on low cost imports.
- Behaviour change and market integrity: Practitioners recommend consumer and trader awareness campaigns on responsible disposal and donation practices, combined with quality assurance protocols to discourage the import of low utility garments. Clear signals on quality and end of life responsibility improve market integrity and reduce waste leakage.
These expert backed measures create a pathway for managing textile waste while supporting industrial development. By combining regulatory responsibility, infrastructure investment, and public awareness, Kenya can begin to address the structural challenges posed by the second hand clothing trade. Limiting the burden on informal actors, while clarifying producer and importer obligations, aligns incentives for a fair transition.
Conclusion
Kenya’s second hand clothing trade delivers economic and social benefits but also generates mounting waste and environmental risks. Divergent assessments between researchers and industry highlight the need for evidence based policymaking. By embracing circular economy principles and strengthening domestic manufacturing, Kenya can balance affordability and livelihoods with sustainability and long term resilience.
The debate over second hand clothing imports is not simply about garments. It is about the future of Kenya’s industrial capacity, the health of its environment, and the livelihoods of millions of citizens. The choices made today will determine whether the country continues to rely on imports that generate waste or builds a sustainable textile ecosystem that creates value at every stage of the chain.
Sources
- EfD Initiative, “Kenya’s second hand clothes pose major waste crisis”
- The EastAfrican, “Donated clothing worsening Kenya’s plastic pollution”
- TNX Africa, “24 million Kenyans wear mitumba: Report”
- East African Herald, “Kenya’s second hand clothes traders lobby against EU export restrictions”
- The Canary, “One third of European used clothing donations to Kenya is really plastic waste”
- KIPPRA, UNEP, EU national policy dialogue on circularity and used textiles trade in Kenya
- TU Wien academic research on textile waste management in Kenya
