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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009
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Is Your Castoff Their Cross?

$1B in Western clothes flood poorer nations and may undercut businesses

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(Newser) – When you gave away last year's clothes, you probably didn't think that poor nations would pay big bucks for them. Yet castoffs are a $1 billion business, the Spectator reports, and may be threatening African cotton growers by flooding their nascent markets. Oxfam argues that its castoffs create jobs—washers, sorters, importers—but a study it funded blamed the charity for undermining West African textiles.

Western garments have gained a mixed reputation. Thirty-one countries ban them; Togans call them "dead white man’s clothing," and in Sierra Leone they're known as "junks." Yet they boost business for tailors, who restitch big Western outfits to fit slim Africans. And one Sierra Leone factory embroiders designs on the clothes to sell back to the West—some for as much as $300 a pop.

secondhand clothes are a $1 billion busines, and a great deal is sold into the rag industry in Africa and other poor nations.
secondhand clothes are a $1 billion busines, and a great deal is sold into the rag industry in Africa and other poor nations.
An Egyptian youth wearing a USA t-shirt wears the traditional woven palm leaf on his head during Palm Sunday service at the Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Samaan, April 28, 2002 in Cairo, Egypt.
An Egyptian youth wearing a USA t-shirt wears the traditional woven palm leaf on his head during Palm Sunday service at the Coptic Orthodox Church of Saint Samaan, April 28, 2002 in Cairo, Egypt.   (Getty Images)
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‘Oh, bloody hell,’ said my cabbie, aghast to hear that someone somewhere in Africa might end up having to pay for his wife’s bin-linered good deeds. - Katrina Manson, the Spectator

In 2007, $80 million worth of US hand-me-downs arrived in Africa, and the figures are up 57 per cent so far this year. - Katrina Manson, The Spectator

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2 comments
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Rayme
Dec 14, 08 11:32 PM CST
Oh god, we are so fat that they have a big business just to take in our clothes. I wish that they were clear, should we or shouldn't we donate clothes. Reply
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Mr.C
Dec 15, 08 12:43 AM CST
Give to the ones that could never afford clothes. (sorry you don't get to direct where your clothes go. The same argument is made for feeding the developing world - it saves lives (short-term at least) but it sometimes hurts farmers there which hurts long-term sustainability.
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