What: Stakeholders disagree on how much of the secondhand clothing that’s imported to the Global South is waste.

Why it is important: Experts say it’s distracting from the underlying issue of overproduction.

In recent years, varying estimates have circulated around the world for how much of the secondhand clothing imported into countries in the Global South is not fit for reuse or resale — ranging from 1 to 40%. The higher estimates are contested by export companies and trade associations.

The problem is that textile recycling, in this context, is regarded by experts as a misnomer. What these companies and organisations more accurately do is sort and export used textiles. And what’s really at risk of failing, say experts, is the business model that the export sector has depended on for decades: sell en masse to countries with thriving secondhand markets, where buyers purchase clothing bales sight unseen, and hope that what is inside will generate them a profit.

While this model seemed to work for a long time, export companies are starting to feel threatened by the growing negative publicity around the waste that critics say the secondhand trade is responsible for in the Global South — and because they’re worried about the implications of forthcoming legislation including extended producer responsibility (EPR).

Researchers and analysts say that by maintaining a narrative that textile resale and recycling are in crisis, the secondhand clothing industry is keeping attention off the real problem:  overproduction, and the fact that nearly limitless volumes of low-quality clothes cannot be repurposed on a planet with limited places to put them and limited people to wear them.

The secondhand market is imploding. Who is responsible?