Rwanda Does Not Want Our Used Clothes and is at a Standoff with the U.S. as a Result.

image: tradekorea

Those barely worn Zara dresses that have been sitting in your closet, the cheap H&M sweaters you bought on a whim at the first hint of winter two years ago, the runway-inspired shoes you needed but have since sworn off for a trendier style, these are the things that tend to find their way to Goodwill or the Salvation Army donation centers, or are discarded in large donation containers strewn across cities in the U.S.

Do you know what actually happens to your cast off clothing once you donate it? Or better yet, do you know what does not happen to those garments? For one thing, they are not sold in the U.S. Not in the vast majority of cases, at least. Instead, your discarded Zara wares and H&M sweaters are – or in a growing number of cases, were – shipped to Africa, India, Pakistan, and other far-flung locales, where they are sold to traders, who will then sell them to consumers.

By TFL.

Full story at The Fashion Law.