Accra demonstration raises the stakes for second-hand clothing trade as vendors protest defamatory “waste dumping ground” claims
Hundreds of second-hand clothing traders in Accra are staging a strike today in the heart of Kantamanto Market, which is still recovering from a devastating fire in January, protesting persistent misinformation spread by the OR Foundation. Organised by the Ghana Used Clothing Dealers Association (GUCDA), the one-day strike aims to defend the dignity of traders and set the record straight about the vital second-hand clothing (SHC) trade. The protest follows a large-scale fire that devastated the Market earlier this year and comes in response to ongoing misrepresentation, including false claims that the Market is a “waste dumping ground.”
Kantamanto is one of Ghana’s largest second-hand clothing hubs with 5000 shops and 30,000 individual workers. It supplies affordable, quality clothing to millions of Ghanaians and others across West Africa, playing a major role in the global circular economy. Today, however, hundreds of Kantamanto traders have closed their stalls and taken to the streets of Accra, calling on the OR Foundation and its partners to respect their trade. The peaceful strike seeks to highlight the positive impact of the second-hand trade on livelihoods and the environment while condemning what GUCDA calls the OR Foundation’s “hypocrisy and misinformation campaign”.
“We will not remain silent while our work is discredited,” said Jeffren Abrokwah, Chairman of GUCDA. “Traders work tirelessly to give a second life to clothing that would otherwise end up in landfills in Europe or America. We refuse to allow the trade and the image of Ghana to be tarnished by the OR Foundation’s false narratives. It is especially painful that an organisation claiming to champion sustainability is spreading lies about a thriving, sustainable trade that supports livelihoods and clothes millions of our people, all while benefiting from fast fashion money. The hypocrisy is astounding.”
Abrokwah noted that the OR Foundation has received money from ultra-fast fashion even as it portrays Kantamanto’s hardworking traders as perpetrators of a waste crisis. “We are the ones cleaning up the fashion industry’s mess, not causing it. All we ask for is respect and honesty.”
For traders like Regina Kissiwa, a mother of three who has been selling clothing in Kantamanto for 15 years, the misinformation has real human costs. “This Market is how I feed my family and send my children to school,” she said during the demonstration. “We take pride in our work. When OR Foundation people came here, we welcomed them, thinking they wanted to help. But then they used our pictures and stories to tell the world a terrible tale that isn’t true. They showed us as if we were drowning in trash. We feel betrayed – they took advantage of our goodwill.”
The trader described realising for the first time that because of the OR Foundation, the international media portray her beloved Market as an “environmental disaster.” “It’s not fair. We are businesswomen and men making a living and helping clothe our fellow Ghanaians.”
The GUCDA points to Ghana’s second-hand clothing trade as a critical economic lifeline and an environmental boon often overlooked by foreign critics. The SHC sector directly and indirectly supports roughly 2.5 million Ghanaians through jobs ranging from importing and retail to tailoring and transportation. An estimated 95% of Ghanaians rely on affordable second-hand clothes, underscoring the trade’s importance for basic needs. Environmentally, by extending the life of garments, markets like Kantamanto divert huge volumes of clothing from landfills and incinerators and reduce the need for new clothing production.
A key grievance driving the strike is the spread of false statistics and sensational images by the OR Foundation and its allies which has stoked a global debate on waste dumping in Ghana, putting the trade at risk. GUCDA refutes the oft-quoted claim that “40–50%” of imported second-hand clothing becomes waste, a figure originally promoted by the OR Foundation’s disputed small-sample research.
Commenting, GUCDA General Secretary Edward B. Atobrah said:
“That number has no evidence behind it and doesn’t reflect what actually happens in the Market. An independent analysis we commissioned in 2024 found that less than 5% of clothing in imported bales is truly unsellable waste. Other independent research has shown that textile waste levels leaving the market are much lower than 40% of what is arriving in imports. As for the pictures of clothes on beaches, they ignore the context – most of that is municipal waste mismanagement, not because we traders failed to do our job. It’s unfair and misleading to use such images to tarnish the entire trade.”
The traders seek an end to the narrative that blames Kantamanto’s traders for the world’s excesses, and a renewed focus on the real issues – overproduction, poor waste infrastructure, and the need to invest in Africa’s circular economy champions.
