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Thousands of tons of used clothing are found each year in the special bins of relief organizations in Germany. Only 10% is distributed to the poor. Most of them are exported to African countries and many are sold as used goods.
In Germany, used clothing and shoes rarely end up in garbage. In addition to the special bins and glbad bins that exist in many places in the cities, there are usually special bins of relief organizations, in which one can throw away clothes and shoes that one does not have. Not needed anymore.
Since the mid-1990s, the volume of used clothing that Germans are stealing from these special bins has increased considerably.
"Every year, about a million tonnes of clothing covers garment packs," says Thomas Alman of FairWertung, a link to nearly 130 utility servers.
At first reading, these gifts have several ends: besides the fact that they are available to the needy, the fact that they do not translate simply by garbage also contributes to the protection of the environment. However, in Germany, the needs are not as important today.
Of the thousands of tons of clothing and footwear collected, only 10% are available from the relief organizations that manage them in people in need. The rest is sold to companies active in the second-hand clothing business.
4% of donations are sold, 40% are exported
The Red Cross, for example, derives about 13.5 million euros a year, which it uses for public purposes. Of course, only a very small percentage of clothing, between 2 and 4%, is in such good condition that it can be sold in second-hand stores in Germany or other Western European countries.
With this negligible percentage of the total volume, however, most of the turnover is realized. The remaining 40% of clothing and footwear is exported, 10% ends up in garbage, the rest is recycled and made into cleaning sails.
The used clothing business being particularly profitable for companies, the demand for second-hand clothing from Germany and other industrialized countries is very high. Old clothing comes mainly from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and especially Africa, creating jobs in manufacturing plants, transport and trade.
And not only, according to FairWertung experts. For many people, used clothes are the only way to buy cheap clothes. Especially in the continental regions of the African continent, they play a very important role. "Many research shows that the domestic garment industry can not meet the growing needs," said Suzanne Paul of the German Red Cross.
However, the real needs of the world do not play, says Freud Chits-Adams of the Südwind Institute. Because used clothes "end up in countries that can pay them in principle". In Congo, for example, imports of used clothing are limited, while the needs are enormous, says the expert.
"They can not pay and that 's why little and more poor clothes end up there, and when a country like India, which has the largest number of deserts in the world, has banned them from doing so. ban on the import of used clothing – and this is not just about naked people – this shows that the current trade in used clothing has little to do with meeting the needs of the poor ".
The flip side
And in terms of jobs? Would it not be better for African countries to produce the same clothes and wear the same products instead of importing used clothes? "The number of people who work in second-hand shoppers' trade, tailors, merchants, salespeople, etc. is far greater than the number of jobs offered by the clothing industry," says Suzanne Paul, of the Red Cross.
In Africa itself, however, the argument that second-hand jobs create and maintain jobs does not seem convincing. Many countries would prefer to build their own production. For decades, they have produced cotton, which is then exported and processed in other countries.
The huge volume of second-hand clothing that "flooded" the African market has contributed to this situation, destroying the domestic production that previously existed. Chits-Adams claims to have repeatedly heard relevant complaints in African countries.
"Unlike Chinese products, African producers see European as unfair competition, and as they say, because those used are freely available, traders have an economic advantage with which you can not compete when you produce it. "According to her, those that were used gave the" free kick "to the 1990s to many producers. Other reasons, such as inadequate infrastructure and insecure energy production, have played a role in their economic extinction.
Many African countries continue to see particularly poorly used clothing. That is why some prohibited imports a few years ago, include Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa. The list of countries that banned the importation of used clothing would obviously be longer if the Americans had not threatened a trade war. The United States is the largest exporter of second-hand clothing, with industry turnover exceeding $ 1 billion a year.
Source: Deutsche Welle
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