The secrets of used clothes: western cast-offs reveal surprising insights

UN Chronicle, Sept-Nov, 2006 by Melissa Gorelick

Plucked from a stuffed closet, boxed and driven to a suburban deposit bin, old jeans and college sweatshirts get a new life when donated to non-governmental collection organizations. That life, however, may begin further from home than most clothes donors in Europe and the United States can imagine.

Donated used clothes, intended for the local poor, make up a majority of what ordinary people in many developing countries buy and wear on a daily basis. How they slip under the international radar and on to continents thousands of kilometres away is one of globalization's untold secrets. In fact, in today's complicated market, what people wear, how they get those garments and even what the clothes are made of often speak louder than trade statistics could ever hope for. An estimated 40 to 75 per cent of used clothing donated to charitable organizations end up not in the hands of the needy in the West but in busy markets across the developing regions, such as in sub-Saharan Africa.

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Karen Tranberg Hansen of Northwestern University, an expert on used clothing trade, said that since the trade liberalization in the early 1990s of many developing countries, there has been a marked increase in the demand for used clothes. Many Zambian families she has worked with buy up to three quarters of their wardrobes from used clothes markets, she said. Exports from the United States alone more than doubled between 1990 and 1997, according to United Nations records, from $174 million at the start of the decade to $390 million.

Countries on the bottom end of the global economic spectrum, such as Zambia, have historically relied on imports of textiles and garments, having jumped in many cases from a colonial system to a very basic industrial economy. But clothing or raw fabric materials, which used to come piecemeal from neighbouring countries, now arrive in compressed 50-kilogram bales from cities like London and Philadelphia via wholesalers in Dar es Salaam or Durban. From their initial drop into donation bins, T-shirts and trousers are sorted first, with the best-quality clothes taken for resale to vintage and thrift stores. Wholesalers respond to requests from worldwide buyers, who name the price for the pressed and packaged remainders. After shipment, the bales are often driven long distances to be sold to local market vendors.

With the adoption of the UN Millennium Development Goals, recent discussion surrounded on the state of least developed countries (LDCs). The path to industry and sustainable business in these nations is a central focus in the struggle to level the global economic playing field. Not surprisingly, many strict advocates of encouraging industry in LDCs have scorned the trade in used clothes, suggesting that it offers a quick-fix alternative to what could be an industrial opportunity. For this reason, used clothing imports are banned in Indonesia and the Philippines. According to Ms. Hansen, protests by unionized workers have also been raised in places like Poland, Pakistan and Lesotho.

"Clothes-dumping" has also been blamed for encouraging the influx of foreign business and thwarting local production efforts, as well as for causing outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease. Most industry experts agree, however, that such trade has little to do with why developing countries do not produce clothing. Many large importers of used clothes, such as Hong Kong and Pakistan, are in fact also big clothing producers. As Ms. Hansen noted, LDCs lack the up-to-date machinery and basic industry start-up capital--factors that greatly decrease the chances of a developing country to compete in the worldwide textile market.

"The issue today is competitiveness", said Mathias Knappe, a senior development officer and textile specialist for the International Trade Council (ITC). Such UN organs, including the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), hope to encourage industry around the world by offering support in areas ranging from business and trading strategies to advice in sourcing raw materials and hiring workers. However, they are sensible in their approaches, pushing businesses in developing regions to do only what they can in the scope of a cut-throat garment and textile market. "African countries dream of developing (large) textile industries", said Mr. Knappe. However, without the significant capital needed to build large factories and update machine technology, "this is not realistic". Instead, ITC and UNCTAD stressed the importance of diversification of the global clothing market.

In the coming years, "firms in developing countries that are able to find niche markets ... will be thriving", agreed Michiko Hayashi, an economic affairs officer at UNCTAD, noting that there is room for many different garment products with several grades of quality and price in the global market. Rapidly developing countries like China have taken the reigns in producing a flood of cheap mass-market clothing. The best path for LDCs may be to match their production potential to small focused jobs--customized goods that cannot be made in vast factories--and pursue lower-profile, untapped niches in the market.