Full circle: The second life of old clothes abroad

I'll be able to address journalists and here at France on cat, I'm Mark Owen, we're all encouraged to recycle, even things where you've packed up old

clothes

you no longer wear and dropped them off at a charity shop or your junkyard. local recycling have you ever wondered what happens next or old

clothes

sometimes go on a fantastic journey and are worn again. The traces of our films are recycled clothes thrown away in Paris and well, some of you may not have imagined that the American writer Mark Twain said that clothes make the man of the people in Africa our waste is making a big difference these reporters for Sandra clarifies and ham DITA Liddy we have and wear more clothes now than at any other time in human history we buy four times as many clothes now as we did 30 years ago Costumes from long ago now sometimes last only a month in Western countries before from being discarded or donated.

These clothing bins are a common sight in Europe and most people think they know what they are for. They are worth a little more. Laughter, darling. Any chef Sheila Miri. She loved an old poem. It is a common belief, but it is not entirely true. Only two percent of these donations are given to those in need. The rest goes to other places. Sometimes we travel great distances. We tracked some clothes from this Parisian container over four thousand kilometers. trip to the Senegalese countryside here no one has any idea where they are from I bought clothes for my son I have an only son I bought clothes for him and also for my husband I go to the market two or three times a year while I earn mine your desi dances I never don't know about where they are the world's

second

-hand clothing economy is worth around five billion euros a profitable secret of globalization and a business that affects all developing countries millions of tons of clothing discarded in the West are resurrected and then resold as part of a huge global market in which developed countries dress those in developing countries without knowing it.

Our investigation begins in northern Italy, in Lombardy, we meet with an employee of one of the largest donation collection companies in the world. sector my name is Khalid Zeki I am Moroccan I work in collections I distribute leaflets leaflets for the collection this is your job but do you know what is written on these leaflets? No, I don't know what is written on them. I do not speak Italian. The flyers show a photo of a well-known Catholic nun Maria Teresa Giuliani along with the logo of a charitable association a reassuring image for those who are thinking about donating their clothes people leave us their clothes their shoes their coats they give us nice things and then later My colleagues come and take them in a van on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I go door to door handing out leaflets, then on Thursdays and Fridays, I take the donation boxes, none of these clothes will go to the homeless Italians, the Catholic organization simply sold the right to use their logo the donations are generous we have almost 40 people working in this team we travel around Italy to collect donations I travel around 300 kilometers per day in three days empty around 70 donation containers I can carry around 400 kilos of one A single container Halim even went to collect donated clothes when there was an earthquake in the region.

A local association contacted him. The system is the same almost everywhere in the world. Some donation bins are even operated directly by private companies. Others carry the logo of an NGOs that resell most of them for export call it transforming material donations into financial donations. The Caritas Red Cross and many other well-known NGOs do the same. To get a clearer idea of ​​the situation, we turned to the main donation collector in France. Emos source and sell some of their donations in France, but the rest goes

abroad

. They say there is a simple explanation. Most people think that when they donate some clothes they are going to the homeless, so there is this emotional aspect of donating and they are generous.

We donate your clothes to help people who sleep on the streets We collect more than one hundred and twenty thousand tons of clothes a year, the total in France is just over two hundred thousand tons and there are around 150,000 homeless people Imagine if everyone received more than a ton of clothes a year obviously that is not the case the clothes that are solved therefore earn money for the NGO emos says that they do not see that as a problem I am not ashamed to say that it gives us money that we have a turnover of recycling in Emmaus Not only textiles currently generate more than 250 million euros a year, that is true, but it does not benefit the shareholders, but rather goes to the people we intend to help.

The more profits we make, the more people we can help by giving them a house or a job or helping them. financially Emo says that this is what we should understand when we give a sweater or pants to an NGO it is as if we were giving a small financial donation instead, it is estimated that eight million tons of clothing are collected every year in the West, which is equivalent to around 50 billion t-shirts the result has a global turnover of at least 5 billion euros these donations finance a rapidly expanding business that has already generated several million jobs around the world on the day of Work is almost over for Helene, her truck is

full

of everything she has.

What she has to do now is empty her day's load here at a warehouse near Lake Como, one of many operated by the company she works for, she continues. , he continues, more, okay, but how many containers are going to be filled? It's going to be filled. This man is a chakra nut. He comes from a poor background. He works as a simple courier in the Tunisian market. He now he is the king of used clothing. A fortune made with what others throw away. We work a lot with charities. We have many warehouses all over the world.

Place where I work here in Italy and take other suppliers from Canada, Switzerland or Germany, Romania. This mountain of clothing is called original bulk stock garments that have not yet been sorted. The first thing Chakra will do with these 40 tons of clothes is return them. to a marketable state a process that takes place in one of their factories on the other side of the Mediterranean once delivered across the sea the clothes arrived in the chyron region in the center of Geneva this factory belongs to shot Krishna joked with the steep company one of the 53 locations specialized in

second

-hand clothing in Tunisia this is where many of the pants, t-shirts and dresses discarded by Europeans reappear with a market value we make the first sorting here on the carpet we saw pants, dresses and jeans in separate stacks head of supply operations mangy Lavezzi has invited us to this factory that has never been filmed before that cart contains pajamas robes that type of thing this entire area is for secondary sorting this table is for short sleeve t-shirts they sort the clothes first rates second and third category batteries this man's t-shirt is first class soft messes they have experience they can tell if it is a brand if there are small holes if it is quite new they wear it romantic this of assigning and it is Summerlin a A little like that, this is the space for high-quality branded clothing.

A kilo of this clothing sells for 15 dinars and for the third level between one and a half and two dinars. At one extreme, top quality clothing. and on the other, what they call rags, which are generally garments that do not match or are very damaged. Many of these items end up in India or Pakistan, where they are transformed into completely new products, such as bath mats or insulation material. When the sorting is finished, the only thing left is for the loads to be pressed together to save space. Then a little woman here is where the girls clean the shoes that they often get dirty to begin with, so they make them new again to sell in foreign markets.

They want quality, that is our goal to see a bottle cursive L has a very open season and all of us for once clean the shoes go to the dryer their new appearance gives them a greater margin when they put them on sale this Factory is a Es one of the largest in the country and has up to 1,000

full

-time workers. Processes the equivalent of 5 million t-shirts per month. The factory sells a third of its production to local wholesalers who satisfy Tunisian demand for second-hand clothing. Mesda Ghana in the city of sphax is one of their clients their clothing kingdom is called slacks mm with 400 stores and the largest shopping center in Tunisia entirely dedicated to second hand clothing that is a Dena 40 cents and your money is for the poor I work with the highest quality top-notch clothing, the best ones are on the hangers and the rest of the top-notch stuff is on the show, when a customer walks in, they should see the wide variety of underwear pajamas and everything else, this is the mid-season range next week.

We will have the summer range, half of all the clothes in Tunisia, second-hand clothes from somewhere else, already worn by someone else, t-shirts worn in the street often carry unexpected slogans in foreign languages ​​and market stalls sell t-shirts soccer game from an obscure small-town German. football clubs in such a successful business with large profit margins and it can be difficult to avoid abuses of the system in some countries selling old clothes is illegal, such as in Tunisia where it is illegal to sell all the shoes we cannot sell old. shoes we work in a prohibited sector I can't tell you where they are from because it is illegal the client's authorities tell us that it is illegal but we have many clients who work in customs come and buy shoes and then they tell us that second-hand clothing is illegal Sometimes it comes with more than its material in this business almost anything can have another use in a new visit to the factory where other rooms are shown full of random objects such as coins from all over the world forgotten in the bottom of pockets this what are these They are accessories and other things we look for everything that comes here electrical items wigs some way what is wrong used clothing also has its place in the world of fashion especially for stylists Sam Ibaka from his studio in Tunisia transforms old clothes and textiles that found in brand new creations morphe I started rummaging through the second hand clothing store and bought some tablecloths and curtains which I turned into the jacket you can see here.

This used to be a rug that old women would put on their knees. I cut it out and added the curtains as a patch. This is a piece of Indian fabric that I bought at a second-hand clothing store. I don't know what to do with it. Maybe something with sleeves like this, like a kind of kimono but with reversible sleeves. maybe it could be quite nice because kimonos are now in fashion for men and women so I should do it could be warm with some nice jeans it's a bit hippie chic this is happier the best second hand clothing store in Tunisia furniture for one which is a great material for me a woven belt that I can untangle I'm using how much does this five dinner cost don't leave it it's too expensive I don't understand what this is that's an old advertisement I could cut it off use it for a back section I think it's a sex toy , you can find anything here and there is the key, if you want, Salle's collector friends, Noirs, share his passion for second-hand clothes, his apartment is like an ancient treasure with antique doll masks from Venice and a huge collection of Hermes silk and Versace ties, expensive clothes thrown away in Europe and bought for three times less in the Tunisian markets, although I found them among the scarce ones, sometimes for only ten dinars, sometimes the quality clothes that cross the Mediterranean are in So high demand in Europe that they returned to the continents to be sold in fashion boutiques in cities like Paris apparently competing with a nice pair of extra asses and a velvet jacket here's your change 37 40 and 50 thanks have a nice day Jackie He opened this vintage store two years ago, in a trendy Parisian neighborhood, most of these clothes were imported from the Tunisian factory.

Clothing originating from Europe, sometimes even from Paris. Our goal with this store is to give the idea that our second-hand clothing is elegant and fashionable, elegant and efficient. I like the wonder that people wear pretty much the same everywhere in the world right now, but our customers want more personalized items that man has put the wind in the sails of the vintage market, then there are the real vintage ones, like the dresses from the our grandmother's gourmet, eh? Mia, they are in great demand right now among young people, there is a real father, once the 26 is very small, here is the 2700 that I had, she said on Hanukkah.

Jackie's shop orders directly from Steve Factory in Tunisia to get the exact items they want. We asked them to work and prepare for the next trend and this is very important. We draw a lot of inspiration from fashion magazines like Elle or Madame Figaro. We buy them every week. We are always on the lookout for upcoming trends. Basically, we are always searching. Then what do we do? What we do is give them lists of what we want and what to prepare, then the women who make the selection know what we are looking for, soFor example, we want this particular shirt, that blouse, or this jacket, we ask you to put aside anything you see that is similar.

Lower quality but wearable clothing is going in the opposite direction to sub-Saharan Africa. A third of second-hand commercial clothing ends up here. Senegal imports more than 7,000 tons of second-hand clothing each year into markets where it competes with low-priced traditional and new clothing. imported stock from China is a bit necessary here they love to dress up and pay attention to the latest fashions on television to look like the big stars since yesterday I only wear second hand clothes Altmann is a second hand. handheld clothing seller in luma a weekly market that moves around the back you can find any type of clothing here even ski gloves used by workers on construction sites the clothing market has also created the need for other jobs people to repair clothes with holes or tears shorts and long sleeves to adapt to the hot weather and clean the clothes until they shine secondhand clothes the workers ask for gooje, that means dusting the clothes and then selling them in the summer so I have brought pants shorts for children and for adults I also have tights for women to wear under their dresses and I also have women's dresses to share.

Rob, you see, it will be pumped in a few months. Oatman will bring its mobile markets indoors so others can have access to its cheap clothing. 450 kilometers from Dhaka is the small town of citta Wilin Yara in the Thom Mukunda region the dressing habits here have also changed there when I can show you the clothes I bought for my son. I bought it at a second hand clothing store and also bought some for my husband. second-hand clothes two or three times a year are not expensive up to 300 CFA francs I don't wear second-hand clothes for special occasions although I wear traditional clothes, so this is a traditional handmade cotton fabric, it's the only thing we used before when We were young, our parents dressed us in that and said yes, right? fields the main crop they grow is cotton, a material exported to other countries, most often to Asia, to be transformed into clothing for the Western market, clothing that is destined to return here again at the end of its second

life

, completing a cycle that includes a long journey. across continents and begins as a donation bin on a city street corner.

It's funny how everything comes full

circle

, but it's nice to see how our old, perfectly wearable clothes have a second

life

. A report by Sandra Lutins and helpful to Lily. See it again on our website. France and the cat are calm and I will post it on my social media accounts for these reporters. Also, in France, stay with us.