The co-founder of Landfills2Landmarks — the global working summit for the secondary textile sector — Henry Treku, has called for a system-wide review of the country’s second-hand clothing trade, urging stakeholders to address failures in the value chain rather than impose blanket bans.
“I think we need to go back and look at systems and look at the failures that exist and come together and see how we can mitigate these failures and ensure that the trade is legitimate with outcomes that really support,” Mr Treku said.
He made the call in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday, on the fourth day of the five-day summit.
The Landfills2Landmarks Summit, which convened in Accra from May 18-22 this year, is on the theme: “Trace, Account, Rebuild”.
The summit on how to reuse textile products brought together government officials, regulators, standards bodies, industry leaders, investors, and downstream market systems to meet to advance governance, accountability, and practical innovation.
The summit aligns upstream standards with downstream outcomes, recognising that decisions across the supply chain, from reuse and repair to rejection and disposal, shape real-world environmental and economic impacts.
Balancing livelihoods, regulation
Addressing concerns over the importation of second-hand clothing, Mr Treku cautioned against calls for a ban, stressing that the trade supported about 2.5 million livelihoods in the country.
“The question that I have is, if we cease the importation of textiles into the country, do we have a robust national framework that can produce enough to meet the demands? We need to ask ourselves practical questions,” he said.
He argued that banning imports without a domestic production alternative would displace millions of people at a time when the government alone cannot absorb them into formal employment.
“I don’t think banning or stopping importation is the solution. It’s very important we are very practical about the conversations that we have and have relevant solutions, that also saves not just short-term purpose but long-term benefit for all,” he added.
Responding to claims that 40 per cent of imported second-hand clothing arrives as waste, Mr Treku questioned the economics of such a model.
“If you have any business and you are making a 40 per cent loss, why would you go back to the market to keep buying the same product? Is this a sustainable business module?” he asked.
Summit
The Landfills2Landmarks Summit commenced last Monday with the aim of convening all actors in the textile value chain – brands, charities, exporters, importers, retailers, and policymakers — to commit to tackling issues linked to the flow of used textiles from the Global North into downstream markets.
Mr Treku said a key outcome was the unveiling of Landfills2Landmarks’ traceability tool, which was already generating data that was being used in boardroom discussions on Extended Producer Responsibility and in building frameworks to support livelihoods downstream.
“A lot of progress, I think we’ve seen a lot of partners come on board, we’ve seen the conversations being expanded into multiple boardrooms, and we’ve seen real commitment,” he said.
Coordination
One of the participants and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sait Recycling, Jonathan Sait, called for coordinated global action to tackle textile waste, saying the solution lay in building infrastructure and making waste processing commercially viable.
He said the scale of waste from fast fashion demanded that all actors in the value chain worked together.
“We need to act together. I understand the problem because of the waste streams that are coming into the business. So, we need to act together,” he said.
Mr Sait, a fifth-generation textile trader, said he had been coming to the country for 20 years, exporting used clothing, and had seen the transformation in the trade first-hand.
“I love to trade. I was born into the trade. But I understand the problem.
Fast fashion and the waste streams that are coming into the business require a response.”
Satisfaction
The Sait Recycling CEO said he supported the first Landfills2Landmarks summit last year and returned this year to assess progress.
He expressed satisfaction with the expanded participation at the 2026 edition.
“I’m so happy that this year we’ve got people from all over the world – Denmark, Canada, Italy. Politicians are involved.
The brands are looking at what we’re doing. Some really good speeches, some really good policy information coming out,” he said.
Mr Sait said his company did not process textile waste in Ghana, but handled large volumes in the United Kingdom.
He said the company aimed for zero waste in the materials it exported to West and East Africa.
“What we understand is that any clothing that gets sold anywhere in the world one day becomes waste.
The biggest problem in Africa as a whole is the fact that there’s no infrastructure for dealing with that item when it does become waste,” he pointed out.
He said Sait Recycling was in talks with multiple stakeholders, funders, and green finance institutions to find ways to make waste processing commercially viable in Africa.
