The global second-hand clothing trade worth US$4 billion has been suspended due to the epidemic. What knock-on effects have been caused? Recently, Reuters conducted a detailed investigation on this.
Old clothes recycling is an important way to relieve pressure in the fashion industry. Second-hand clothing transactions include Helping prevent the fashion industry’s excess inventory from being thrown directly into landfill, while also helping consumers free up their wardrobes and prepare for next season’s new styles. But under the impact of the new crown epidemic, this business model has fallen into unprecedented difficulties. Second-hand clothing exporters in Europe and the United States, as well as traders in developing countries who rely on second-hand clothing supplies, are struggling.
From London to Los Angeles, on the streets outside many clothing stores and second-hand clothing stores They all have a large backlog of unsold clothes, and the inventory in the sorting warehouses is also piling up. Many textile recyclers and exporters have had to reduce prices to move inventory.
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England Antonio de Carvalho, the owner of Green World Recycling, a textile recycling company in the central Stourbridge area, said in June: “Our warehouse is full.” Antonio de Carvalho sells recycled clothes to overseas merchants and makes a profit.
Typically, traders in poorer countries such as Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America rely on for these second-hand clothes. However, since the outbreak of the epidemic at the beginning of this year, blockade measures have restricted the flow of second-hand clothing, and business in overseas end markets has slowed down.
Since overseas buyers are no longer able to afford shipping costs, Antonio de Carvalho said that since Since May, his price to overseas buyers has dropped from £570 to £400 per ton, making it difficult for his company to cover the costs of collecting and storing the clothes.
Antonio de Carvalho said that the buyer also requested that the payment period be changed from 15 The days extended to 45-60 days, which exacerbated the cash flow problem. “We are losing … a lot of money and have significant operating losses.”
Second-hand clothing market shrinks
Antonio de Carvalho’s experience reflects the struggles facing the entire industry , maybe even if the epidemic passes, the hit second-hand clothing trade will take a long time to recover.
Reuters’ survey of 16 market participants in the UK, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands Interviews show that clothing recyclers are reducing the number of times they collect clothes and clear inventory each week, and are considering layoffs to save cash.
At the same time, consumers stuck at home due to the epidemic are also cleaning up Own Wardrobe, Clothes Donation is on the rise. While this would be a good thing under normal circumstances, it currently puts greater pressure on clothing recyclers.
Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (SMART) ) Executive Director Jackie King said: “This is unlike any recession in a century. I expect companies to fail.”
United Nations trade data shows that in the five years to 2019, global second-hand clothing exports averaged more than $4 billion per year, and the withdrawal of clothing recyclers is having a profound impact on the industry.
Official data shows that in the UK, second-hand clothing exports from March to July The amount was about half of the same period last year. Export volumes improved in July, the latest month on record, as countries began to reopen and merchants seized the opportunity to move inventory, but exports were still down about 30% year-on-year.
U.S. government data shows that second-hand clothing exports from March to July This is a 45% decrease from the same period last year. The United States is the world’s largest exporter of used clothing, and up to one-third of donated clothing ends up being sold in markets in developing countries.
Crisis in Kenya
In 2018, Kenya imported 176,000 tons of second-hand clothing, equivalent to more than 335 million pairs of jeans.
Now, in one of the largest second-hand clothing markets in East Africa – (Kenya At Gikomba, an open-air market in Nairobi, the capital, business is slow, with shop assistants standing idle and merchants trying to encourage shoppers to try on their clothes.
Image source: Reuters
Trade here Businesses were hit with a double blow: on the one hand, the government banned imports of second-hand textiles in March due to concerns that they might carry the coronavirus.�Some textiles. On the other hand, as people themselves stayed at home, apparel demand and foot traffic dropped.
Nicholas Mutisya, a salesperson selling second-hand jeans and hats, said: “During the outbreak, Before, I could sell at least 50 pairs of pants every day. But now, it is difficult to sell one pair every day.”
The Kenyan government lifted a ban on the import of second-hand textiles in August as Kenyan traders and industry bodies in Europe and the United States said second-hand clothes were safe and the virus could not survive the journey to Africa.
But for salespeople like Nicholas Mutisya, the difficulties continue . His colleague Anthony Kang ‘ethe said: “There used to be five workers in our company. Now there are only two of us left.”
They sell second-hand clothes shipped from the UK in a shop and say the supply crunch has hit the industry hard. “We can no longer buy bundles (of clothes) directly, so now we buy clothes from traders we have worked with before.”
The dark side of fashion
Since Since the 1990s, due to the growing demand for Western fashion in Africa and Eastern Europe, large-scale commercial trade activities in importing second-hand clothing from Europe, the United States and other emerging markets began to flourish.
Such strong demand has caused the fashion market to expand rapidly, according to sustainability charities According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, global apparel production has nearly doubled in the past 15 years.
In March 2019, the United Nations Environment Program stated that the fashion industry is the world’s largest The two largest water-consuming industries account for 10% of global carbon emissions, which is more than the emissions of all international flights and shipping combined.
At the same time, excess clothing creates a lot of waste, and the waste continues Increasingly, they end up in landfills.
According to a 2019 British Parliament report by the Environmental Audit Committee According to the report, in the UK, consumers buy more clothes per person than in any other country in Europe, about five times as much as in the 1980s. The report states that approximately 300,000 tonnes of clothing is landfilled or incinerated in the UK every year.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (Environmental Protection Agency), the United States generates Nearly 17 million tons of textile waste is equivalent to 29 billion pairs of jeans. Two-thirds of it ends up in landfill.
Anna Smith, a doctoral researcher at King’s College London, is Investigate a circular economy system designed to eliminate waste. She said: “The whole problem is getting worse. People are consuming more and more.”
Many fast-fashion retailers, including Zara and H&M, encourage customers to return used clothes they no longer need for recycling. H&M also offers discounts to customers who support clothing recycling.
A spokesman for Zara parent company Inditex said the company’s clothing collection Only a small proportion of them end up being sold on the international market. H&M said clothes recycled in its stores are processed by I:CO, a division of German textile recycling company Soex.
Recently, Japanese fast fashion brand Uniqlo launched a campaign called Re. Uniqlo The used clothing recycling program aims to recycle consumers’ second-hand unused branded clothing and make it into new products. The first product planned to be launched by Re. Uniqlo is a V-neck down jacket made from 100% recycled materials.
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