FROM TREND TO TRASH
Parallel to the accelerated growth seen in the western garment industry in the 20th and 21st century, clothing production costs have gradually declined due to industrialized manufacturing and global outsourcing. This, in turn, has resulted in garments becoming increasingly more fungible, perishable consumer goods. Over the past two decades, this tendency has been further intensified as consumer purchasing power has gained momentum in the global North [1].
Today, large parts of the fashion industry involve cheap, fast mass production of apparel based on steadily deteriorating working conditions for textile workers in low-cost countries. With artificially low prices and constantly changing collections, the garment industry encourages the overconsumption of short-lived textiles of inferior quality, resulting in immense quantities of used clothing ending up as waste in the global South [2]. ‘Fast fashion’ and ‘ultra-fast fashion’ are terms used to describe this business model used by modern fashion giants.
Second-hand garments from Europe, the US and Canada, are typically exported to African nations. Each year, an estimated 20 million kg of western textile waste are dumped in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi [3]. Whatever is not sold at Gikomba – Kenya’s largest second-hand market, is hauled away as waste. Dandora is an increasingly expanding landfill located just outside Nairobi. It is East Africa’s largest dumpsite, covering more than 121 000m² (30 acres) [4]. For many, rifling through unsorted waste to find recyclable items and textiles has become an alternative to a life of crime, offering a rare opportunity for the unemployed to earn money. Children also take part in sorting at the landfill after school or on weekends to supplement family incomes. This informal recycling economy feeds roughly 3 000 families in the surrounding slums [5]. However, searching for saleable garments in the face of sharp objects, ruthless lorry drivers and unhygienic conditions is a risky business and frequently causes serious health hazards. Workdays often extend from sunrise to sunset. The independent scavengers specialize in different types of recyclable products. While intact clothing is cleaned and sold at local used markets in Nairobi, most of the textiles are beyond repair, so they are incinerated in fires or buried along with other waste. Vast quantities end up in the Nairobi River, which runs beside Dandora. Consequently, large parts of the riverbed are polluted with plastic-based clothing from the West. Furthermore, chemicals and microplastics leak into the groundwater. Official workers in green uniforms are tasked with cleaning textile waste from the banks of the Nairobi River, in a modest, fairly futile attempt to confront the overwhelming challenge.
Apart from the portraits of Norwegian clothes closets and the second-hand market Gikomba, the images presented here are from Dandora and the Nairobi River. These are just two out of many final resting places for growing volumes of overproduced apparel from the fast fashion industry in high-income countries in the West.
Norwegians are among the top consumers of clothing by global standards. In Norway, each of us owns an average of 359 garments, and each year, we discard or donate an average of 23 kg of textiles per person. Eight per cent of the clothes we buy are never worn [6]. In addition, clothing manufacturers themselves dispose of tonnes of unused garments that were not sold before new collections were launched. Half of all our used textiles end up in residual waste, meaning they are incinerated. Yet the volume of clothing discarded by private households in Norway has increased by more than 50 per cent since 2010. Ninety-seven per cent of used textiles that are donated, are exported out of the country to the global second-hand market [7]. This adds up to more than 36 000 metric tonnes of garments annually [8].
By European standards, Norway scores 26 per cent higher than the EU average for the export of clothing. Globally, we buy an average of 60 per cent more clothes today than 15 years ago, but we only use them for half as long. Each year, the world manufactures 100 billion garments, and three out of five items end up in landfills or incinerators within one year after being produced [9].
The UN has described the fashion industry as the second most polluting industry in the world after oil, and the second largest consumer of water [10]. Vast quantities of non-renewable resources are consumed to manufacture garments with a short useful economic life. It takes no less than 7 500 litres of water to make a new pair of jeans [11]. Two out of three new garments are made of petroleum-based fibre, consisting on average of 60 per cent plastic (polyester, acrylic and nylon textiles). As much as 35 per cent of all microplastics in the ocean originates from synthetic clothing, and the percentage and volume are increasing [12]. The garment industry is responsible for roughly 10 per cent of all CO2 emissions, which is more than all air traffic and maritime shipping combined [13].
Fast fashion and the growth of unregulated landfills in low-income countries have profound consequences for local populations and global pollution.
- Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017). A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future.
- Klepp, I. G. & Laitala, K. (2016). Klesforbruk i Norge. Forbruksforskningsinstituttet SIFO – Høgskolen i Oslo og Akershus.
- Watson, D. & Trzepacz, S. – PlanMIljø, Rubach, S & Johnsen, F. M. – NORSUS (2020). Kartlegging av brukte tekstiler og tekstilavfall i Norge.
- Amed, Imran & Berg, Achim – McKinsey & Company (2018). The State of Fashion 2019.
- Remy, N., Speelman, E. & Swartz, S. – McKinsey & Company (2016). Style that’s sustainable:
A new fast-fashion formula. - Van Woensel, L. & Suna Lipp, S. – European Parliamentary Research Service (2020). What if fashion were good for the planet?
- UN News (2023). UN launches drive to highlight environmental cost of staying fashionable. Available at: news.un.org/en/story/2019/03/1035161 (Accessed 13.07.2023)
- Changing Markets Foundation (2021). Annual Report.
- Henry, B., Laitala, K. & Klepp, I. G. (2018). Microplastic pollution from textiles: A literature review. (Rapport nr. 1 – 2018)
Boucher, J. & Friot, D. (2017). Primary Microplastics in the Oceans: A Global Evaluation of Sources. - UNECE News (2018). Fashion is an environmental and social emergency, but can also drive progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Available at: unece.org/forestry/news/fashion-environmental-and-social-emergency-can-also-drive-progress-towards(Accessed 13.07.2023)
- Gulbrandsen, Å. P. (2023). Land i det globale sør oversvømmes av brukte klær fra det globale nord. Available at: framtiden.no/artikler/hva-skjer-med-vaare-brukte-klaer (Accessed 13.07.2023)
Matthis Kleeb
Matthis Kleeb, born 1987, is a Norwegian-Swiss trained sociologist and freelance photographer. He combines photojournalism and perspectives from the social sciences in his work as a documentarian.
In the project From Trend to Trash, Kleeb examines the climate consequences of the fast fashion industry. Today’s Western clothing industry is based on mass production in low-cost countries. With artificially low prices and constantly changing clothing collections, the fashion industry encourages the overconsumption of short-lived oil-based textiles. Norwegians are at the top of the world in terms of clothing consumption. We buy 70,000 tons of clothes, of which 8% are never used.
The photographs in the series were taken in the Dandora landfill in Kenya. Both children and adults work here: they wade into sharp and dangerous objects, inhale toxic gases and do their best to avoid the wheels of trucks that dump more waste, while looking for clothes to sell in markets.