In this bonus episode of Fashion, Really?, we’re looking at where wasted fashion goes, and the fashion industry’s dirty global secret of waste colonialism. Our guest, Sammy Oteng, is a designer based in Accra, Ghana, working as Senior Community Engagement Manager at the OR Foundation. He joins us for a powerful conversation about where our clothes really go when we’re done with them.

Spoiler: It’s not all thrift shops and upcycling.

Sammy walks us through both the creative ingenuity and the harsh social and environmental realities of Kantamanto Market in Accra, one of the largest secondhand clothing markets in the world. We're talking mountains of discarded clothes, environmental fallout, and a system stacked against the very communities forced to clean up the Global North’s mess.

Amongst the dark there is also light: Sammy shares how Ghanaian creatives, traders, and tailors are innovating: reclaiming and reimagining waste into something new. We also unpack extended producer responsibility (EPR), and why it might be one of the few policy tools with real teeth to solve this problem.

It’s an episode about power, justice, and what it means to take responsibility for fashion’s footprint.

00:00 Introduction to Sammy Oteng and The OR Foundation

00:59 Defining waste colonialism

02:05 Impact of waste colonialism in Ghana

06:53 Kantamanto Market: a model of sustainability

12:05 Challenges and Innovations in fashion design

19:48 Consumer responsibility and education

26:32 Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)

38:40 Final thoughts and call to action

Actions you can take:

Speak Volumes campaign by The OR Foundation

Sign our total ethics fashion manifesto

Try the rule of 5 challenge

More resources:

Learn more with the OR Foundation and support their work

CFJ’s page on mass consumerism and its impact

Read: Consumed: The Need for Collective Change, by Aja Barber

Read: Total Ethics Fashion, by Emma Hakansson

Follow:

Sammy’s design Instagram

OR Foundation