The International Second-Hand Clothing Trade: Contributions to Sustainability and the Circular Economy

Andrew Brooks ()
Additional contact information
Andrew Brooks: Department of Geography, King’s College London, London WC2B 4BG, UK

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: Over 24 billion items of used clothing are traded annually from high- to low-income countries in a sector worth more than 4.9 billion dollars. Imported second-hand clothes are the primary source of garments for many of the world’s poorest people. The sustainability of this system and its contribution to the circular economy is explored. Results map the structure of used clothing networks. UN Comtrade data is analyzed to trace the major exporters and importers, and trade and NGO reports are explored to consider the environmental and economic impacts. Second-hand clothing imports have a negative effect on local clothing industries and cause environmental harm in developing countries. The article further explores how the second-hand clothing trade intersects with the circular economy and emerging patterns of clothing re-sale, such as the Vinted peer-to-peer retail platform. Rather than contributing to economic or environmental sustainability or a true circular economy, the second-hand clothing sector is facilitating the expanding consumption of fast fashion in developed economies, stifling industrial development and causing environmental damage via a form of ‘waste colonialism’ particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. Anti-poverty organizations like Oxfam play a contradictory role as they benefit from the trade, which is part of a wider fashion system that is unsustainable.

Keywords: Africa; circular economy; overconsumption; Oxfam; second-hand; sustainable fashion; trade; used clothes; vinted; waste colonialism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/18/8397/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/18/8397/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:18:p:8397-:d:1753079

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().