RT: Second-hand textile exports from the bloc have tripled over the past 20 years, according to the European Environment Agency.
The European Union is exporting about 90% of its used clothes and textile waste to Africa and Asia, a trend that is having a dire ecological impact, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has warned. The EEA has ranked textile waste as the fourth-highest source of environmental pressure and climate change resulting from EU consumption.
The EU generates approximately 5.8 million metric tons of textile waste per year, with only a quarter of this being recycled due to limited “reuse and recycling capacities.” The majority is shipped, in some cases as a donation, to Africa and Asia, where low-cost secondhand clothing is in high demand.
“The perception of used clothing donations as generous gifts to people in need does not fully match reality,” the EEA said in a recent report. It added that “used clothing is increasingly part of a specialized and traded global commodity value chain.”
The EEA stated the amount of used textiles exported from the EU has tripled over the last two decades, from slightly over 550,000 tonnes in 2000 to almost 1.7 million tonnes in 2019. more
No shirt, Sherlock!
So Europeans donate used clothes that are sent to Africa and Asia, where some is improperly disposed of, and somehow that’s the Europeans fault? Because Africans and Asians can do no wrong, only white people.
And just WHO is in charge of collecting, transporting, and distributing these second hand clothes? Not the people who donate.
Maybe……just, maybe……all us of European descent should STOP donating our second hand stuff for the ostensible purpose of helping those with less then ourselves overseas. Maybe…..start donating “local”. You know, like the neighbor down the street with growing children. The homeless downtown. That kind of thing. Cut out the “local charity” middleman mismanagement.
See who starts screaming first, “HEY, WHERE’S OUR STUFF?”
I don’t know jack about this, but I tend to doubt the claims from any “environmental” group.
Put said scraps in a place where they can be studied by future whatever-they-will-call-archeologists, (since the word archeology has been appropriated by the same crowd who appropriated the word liberal.)
Said place would be the dump.
It’s even worse than that! See the documentary “Poverty Inc.”produced by the Acton Institute. Once a culture is capable of producing its own food, the next step up is textiles and clothing. When rich countries donate shoes and clothes to poor countries, that wipes out a whole tier of potential entrepreneurship that can kickstart economic development.