Mountain of dirty British clothes randomly wash up on African beach
A mountain of dirty British clothes has bizarrely ended up washed up on a West African beach.
The gargantuan collection of clothes Brits have thrown away is a chilling indicator of the true cost of ' fast fashion '.
A common misconception about donating old unwanted clothes is that they get packaged up and sent to someone who needs it.
READ MORE: Model rocks risqué lace corset with thong bottom as it leaves shoppers in awe
However, the truth is that often they are shipped abroad and deemed so bad that they get chucked straight onto a landfill to slowly rot.
Pictures have now emerged of a huge clump of clothes covering the beaches of Ghana, illustrating the pollution parts of the world are experiencing as a result of our addiction to cheap, disposable clothes.
The mountain of clothes sits on the beach of Jamestown, a fishing community in the Ghanaian capital of Accra where around 15 million items from across the globe are sent to every week, according to ABC.
The city has a huge market for second hand clothes, but a huge amount of donations are pretty much worthless with around 40% of them thrown away immediately, due to being judged in poor condition.
Piles of clothes sit around decomposing, though storms can wash chunks of them away into the sea where they form 'tentacles' of fabric which wash up on the beaches.
To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here .
The largest exporter of second hand clothes is the US, but after them it's thought to be the UK.
Research from environmental charity WRAP says that of the 70% of clothes donated or wasted by Brits, which end up abroad, much of it never finds a new owner.
A contributing factor behind this mountain of unwanted clothes is the 'fast fashion' trend which produces cheap, low quality items of clothes that help consumers keep up with the latest fashion trends.
Not made to last, 'fast fashion' is made to be worn a few times and then thrown away, with large amounts of it ending up on massive landfill sites like the one in Accra.
Fast fashion has been a problem in the UK for years, with WRAP warning that the carbon footprint of the fashion industry was growing thanks to a consumer shift to cheaper clothes.
Every year Brits bin over 300,000 tonnes worth of clothes, about the weight of 30 Eiffel Towers.
READ NEXT:
- Rotting whale carcass sparks hungry shark fears as beachgoers warned to stay clear
- Putin's soldiers shoot down own helicopter after it mistakenly attacked them
- City sees more than 200 people murdered in just 10 days amid horrifying bloodshed
- Surgeons hand shooting victim's family plastic bag containing one of his kidneys
- Influencer arrested for 'immoral content' in Saudi Arabia after inviting woman for 'fun'
Source: Read Full Article
