Global production of apparel and textile fibres amounts to more than 110 million tonnes annually. The textile sector is expected to represent 26% of the world’s carbon budget and use, and 300 million tonnes of non-renewable raw materials by 2050.

A large proportion of previously owned clothes ends up in market stalls across Africa, sometimes representing 50% of the clothing sector by volume in many countries. But as much as 40% of the clothes that are imported in bulk, packed in bales, are declared unsaleable and are consigned to landfill.

This means that in effect African countries are importing clothing waste. Most of the existing solutions can only simply downcycle this material, converting textile waste into low-grade products such as insulation and carpeting.