The rise of fast fashion has flooded the world with 100 billion garments per year—that’s 13 times the world’s population. And far more than we can ever wear, resell, or recycle.

The fashion industry faces a significant overproduction issue: 30% of all clothing produced globally is never sold. This surplus results in billions of garments ending up in landfills or incinerators every year, accelerating environmental degradation.

To put that into perspective, the carbon footprint of unsold fashion is estimated at 360 million tonnes of CO₂ annually—the equivalent of emissions from 50 million cars in a year.

We all have clothing we don’t wear, so what do we do with it?

What Happens to the Clothes We Donate?

When you drop off clothes at a thrift store, you might assume they’ll find a second home. But the reality is very different: only 15-20% of donated clothing is sold in-store. The rest? Packed into massive bales and sold to exporters who trade secondhand clothing as a commodity.

What most people don’t realise is that the secondhand clothing trade is a billion-dollar global industry, where unsold clothes from charity stores are bundled and exported by the tonne. While marketed as a way to "help" communities in low-income countries, the reality is far more complex.

What Happens to the Clothes We Donate?

When you drop off clothes at an op shop, you might assume they’ll find a second home. But the reality is very different:

✔ Charities Are Overwhelmed: Many thrift stores receive far more donations than they can handle. In Australia alone, charities spend $13 million annually on sending textiles to landfill! as fast fashion’s low-quality garments often can’t be resold.

✔ Only 15-20% of Donations Are Sold in Store: The rest? It enters the global secondhand clothing trade, a billion-dollar industry where unsold charity shop stock is baled, exported, and sold as a commodity.

✔ Your $2 Fast Fashion T-Shirt? It’s Probably Waste: Much of what’s donated is low-quality fast fashion that isn’t durable enough for resale. Once overseas, if it’s too damaged or low quality, it’s immediately discarded—not recycled, not repurposed, just waste.

Where Do Our Clothes End Up?

The biggest recipients of secondhand clothing exports are Ghana, Kenya, Pakistan, and India. These countries receive millions of garments per week, overwhelming local markets and landfills.

The Dark Side of the Global Secondhand Clothing Trade

Instead of helping local economies, the influx of secondhand clothing often causes more harm than good:

• Dumping Waste in the Global South
  In Ghana’s Kantamanto Market, 15 million garments arrive every week—but up to 40% are immediately discarded because they are too damaged or low quality. These clothes end up in massive textile waste dumps, polluting land and waterways. Wealthy nations are exporting their waste, shifting the environmental burden to poorer countries.

• Crushing Local Fashion Industries
  The constant flow of cheap secondhand clothes destroys demand for local textile production, making it nearly impossible for domestic businesses to compete. Instead of creating sustainable fashion industries, it fosters dependency on waste from wealthier nations.

• Unethical Recycling Practices
  Some textiles are downcycled into rags or blankets, like the shoddy industry in Panipat, India, where discarded wool garments are turned into low-cost blankets. While this might seem like a form of circularity, it happens under hazardous, unregulated working conditions, where workers—often women—are exposed to dust, chemicals, and poor wages.
  
  

So, What Can Consumers Do?

We’re led to believe that donating is the solution—but the real fix is to stop overconsuming in the first place. Here’s what you can do:

✔ Buy Less, Choose Better
Focus on quality over quantity. The fewer clothes you discard, the less fuel you’re adding to this broken system.

✔ Donate Responsibly
Only donate clothes that are clean, in good condition, and truly wearable. If it’s damaged, look for textile recycling programs like Upparel, rather than assuming charity stores can handle it.
💡 Pro tip: Donate wearable items directly to local thrift stores rather than sending them to intermediaries—Upparel passes 65% of donations to charities, so you may as well go direct and save money.

✔ Support Circular Fashion
Choose brands that design for longevity and circularity, offering take-back schemes, repair programs, or responsible recycling.

✔ Clothes Swap
Get the thrill of something "new" with zero cash! Keep clothing circulating through swaps rather than buying.

✔ Learn to Repair Clothing
Mend, adjust, and transform your clothes. There are community repair workshops in many areas—get involved!

✔ Hold Brands Accountable
Fast fashion giants created this problem—not consumers trying to do the right thing. Demand better by supporting brands that take full responsibility for their products, from production to end-of-life.

The Bottom Line

The secondhand clothing trade has become a dumping ground for fast fashion’s overproduction crisis. While buying and selling secondhand clothing locally is a great option, the global secondhand market is not the ethical solution we think it is.

The truth? There is no “fix” for our overconsumption culture. No amount of donating, swapping, recycling, or repurposing can keep up with the rate at which we consume.

We still live in a world where Shein has grown into a $50 billion company, with 42% sales growth from 2023 to 2024. Where haul culture is celebrated. Where brands make more clothes than we will ever need.

But bit by bit, we can change this. Our choices, our voices, and our demand for better fashion systems will be heard.

Buy less. Demand better.