With the rise and rise of “fast fashion”, clothes are becoming cheaper in the world’s wealthiest countries. That’s also making them more disposable. Many discarded garments are imported by developing and emerging economies from Ukraine to Pakistan.

But Ghana was the world’s top importer of used clothing in 2020, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity research group. This has also contributed to an environmental eyesore on some of the West African country’s beaches as discarded clothes create a waste management challenge. Ghana’s imports are ahead of countries with much larger populations including Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania.