Used clothes recalled from stores end up in landfills in Africa.

Major fashion brands, from luxury to fast fashion, compete daily to earn some sort of sustainability accolade, and they build relentless marketing and advertising campaigns around these policies. A classic example is the option given to customers to return used items when purchasing new ones. This offers two benefits, in terms of image and revenue, for the company. This attracts consumers to new purchases by luring them into the fight against pollution: each item returned translates into a coupon for a small discount on the new product, thus encouraging the consumer to make further, perhaps unnecessary, purchases. Meanwhile, companies that offer return of used items can boast of having earned the "sustainable brand" label.

But then, a thorough field investigation reveals a whole different truth, bordering on blatant greenwashing. The research began with a simple question: what happens to used clothes brought to major fashion brands' stores, ready to take them back? To answer this, the NGO Changing Markets Foundation followed the journey of 21 used garments for almost a year (from August 2022 to July 2023), including coats, down jackets, skirts, sweatshirts, and more, all in perfect condition. Even with the tags attached. Each item was tracked with an Apple AirTag to follow its every step and final destination. Specifically, the Dutch NGO tested the used clothing take-back schemes of 10 brands: H&M, Zara, C&A, Primark, Nike, Boohoo, New Look, The North Face, Uniqlo, and M&S in stores in the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and Germany.

These brands' take-back schemes, which empower consumers to avoid accumulating unused items and instead make what they consider a good, environmentally friendly gesture, have very reassuring slogans. For example, C&A's slogan is "Give your clothes a second life," H&M's "Let's close the loop," and The North Face's "Lets complete the circle." But what happens next? According to a Changing Markets Foundation investigation , 16 out of 21 items were destroyed, left in warehouses, or exported to Africa to end up in landfills or burned in ovens. They were also sent to the second-hand market in Ukraine, where fortunately they ended up in resale shops and purchased. A skirt donated to H&M traveled 24.800 km from London to a desolate area in Mali. A long-sleeved shirt, also from the Swedish brand, traveled 11.400 km to end up in a market in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, where it was sold as rags or burned in ovens. A sweatshirt delivered to a C&A store in Belgium ended up in the Nouakchott market in Mauritania, where it disappeared after the tracking device was removed, likely sold to the electronics market.

This, ultimately, is neither recycling nor reuse. But it represents the opposite of sustainability.

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