The scenes are daunting: tangled webs of clothing waste clogging sewer systems and polluting ecosystems in communities around the world, from Ghana to Kenya to Chile — all of which import shipments of secondhand clothing from countries with high rates of fashion consumption largely in the Global North.

Concern has been mounting about the global secondhand market, as stories continue to emerge about unwanted or unsellable clothes choking communities and clogging waterways around the world. “People are finally seeing that this is a big, exploitative industry,” says Bobby Kolade, a designer based in Kampala, Uganda, who upcycles used clothes for his label Buzigahill, which has stockists in Belgium, Japan and elsewhere. “It’s a business model for exporters to smuggle in waste.”