Fashion And Waste

Have you ever wondered what happens to your clothing after you donate it? Fashion’s waste crisis is caused by compounded exploitation, not by a lack of recycling technology. Using Kantamanto Market in Accra, Ghana as a case study, this course will explore the nuances of waste colonization, offering a deep dive into the global secondhand clothing trade and why circularity must go beyond a materials-based framework to truly revolutionize the way we think about and “deal with” clothing waste.

Resources:

Books/Literary Texts/Articles

Deadwhitemansclothes.org
@theorispresent
Kantamanto Fire Relief Fundraiser
Kantamanto Fire Relief video
Interview with Solomon Noi, Director of Waste Management for Accra
Interview with Kpone Waste Pickers Association
Our Long Recovery Video
Foos Dwa Mu Akukudam (We are the secondhand experts)
This Is Not Your Goldmine. This Is Our Mess. – an open letter to the fashion industry
Dead White Man’s Clothes – an introduction to Kantamanto

Videos/Podcasts

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney
Discourse on Colonialism by Aimé Césaire
Craft of Use: Post-Growth Fashion by Kate Fletcher
Afrosartorialism Interview with Sel Kofiga
Developing A National Programme For Textiles And Clothing Recovery by Mohammed Abdullatif Bukhari, Ruth Carrascro-Gallego and Eva Ponce-Cueto (research article on Textile EPR in France)
Ghana Fashion Archive in 3D Project by Asaaba
How to Buy Clothes Built to Last by Kendra Pierre-Louis
Gone Thrifting: How to Build A Better Thrifting System by Emily Stochl
Driving in the Postcolony: An Interview with Jennifer Hart (legacy of colonial transportation infrastructure in Ghana)
Will The Circular Economy Save The Planet by Elizabeth L Cline
EPA Textile Waste Specific Data
What A Waste 2.0: A Global Snapshot of Solid Waste Management to 2050

Liz Ricketts

Liz Ricketts is a designer, educator and co-founder of The OR Foundation, a USA and Ghana based non-profit working at the intersection of environmental justice, education and fashion development. For the last four years The OR has conducted an in-depth analysis of Accra’s Kantamanto Market, the largest secondhand market in West Africa. Through this work, The OR has highlighted how Kantamanto is both a dumping ground for the Global North’s excess and a model of sustainability from which the Global North could learn. In 2018, The OR Foundation launched the Sustainable Fashion Initiative (SFI) at the University of Cincinnati. SFI is a student-centered coalition working to make the fashion program at UC zero-waste and addressing social inequity within fashion education. Liz consults with brands and municipalities on reducing textile waste, and she has taught at multiple American universities and has mentored over 100 young designers globally.