[OC] Greenwashing und Alttextilhandel

The Used Textile Industry is a controversial one. Often there are little to no benefit for the countries that import these goods with the majority of goods ending up in landfills in foreign countries. Here I looked at the source of these used textiles and found that very few countries are actually responsible for the vast majority of used textile exports. I did this by looking at net exporters and net importers.

What got me thinking about this was when I looked into textile exports I noticed that it was often portrayed as monetary value, however this is often wrong as used clothing tends to have significantly different values from the actual weight and amount of used clothing.

I found myself looking into the trade and learned a lot of interesting things and how it relates to fast fashion and more recently in places such as the EU. Extended Producer Responsibility which is often the cause of the export of Used Goods and dumping in places such as Africa. It is significantly cheaper to export these goods instead of building local infrastructure to deal with them. Recently France has attempted to propose a ban on this trade in the EU though it is facing resistance. The exportation of plastics another similar export to Africa though has been banned and will be implemented by 2026.

To learn more:

[https://fairresourcefoundation.org/en/out-of-sight-out-of-the-system-producers-evade-epr-costs-by-exporting-waste-to-africa/](https://fairresourcefoundation.org/en/out-of-sight-out-of-the-system-producers-evade-epr-costs-by-exporting-waste-to-africa/)

[https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3635](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3635)

[https://www.sustainabilityenvironment.com/2024/03/20/france-proposes-a-ban-on-exports-of-used-clothing/](https://www.sustainabilityenvironment.com/2024/03/20/france-proposes-a-ban-on-exports-of-used-clothing/)

Source: CEPII BACI 2022 UN Comtrade Data

Tools: Tableau

Link to interactive:

[https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/david.chung6834/viz/FastFashion_17273600119280/Greenwashing](https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/david.chung6834/viz/FastFashion_17273600119280/Greenwashing)