The International Second-Hand Clothing Trade, Sustainability and the Circular Economy

Over 24 billion items of used clothing circulate globally from high to low-income countries providing garments for many of the world’s poorest people. The annual export trade is worth more than 4.9 billion dollars. The sustainability of this system is explored. Results trace the structure of used clothing networks. UN Comtrade data is analyzed to map the major exporters and import destinations, and trade and NGO reports explored to consider the environmental and economic impacts, including the negative effect of imports on local clothing industries and the contradictory roles of organizations like Oxfam. 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. This novel application uses connectivity to enable new resale patterns. The article argues that rather than contributing to sustainability the second-hand clothing sector is facilitating the expanding consumption of fast fashion in developed economies and stifling industrial development and causing environmental damage in low-income nations. New efforts to develop sustainable patterns of clothing re-use—including peer-to-peer retail and flawed circular economy models—do not challenge the fundamental unsustainability of a fashion industry based on overconsumption.