A mountain ridge of garbage mars the beauty of a beach in Ghana. One of the chief culprits is textile waste from industrialized nations in the west, an unintended consequence of charity. When used clothing is donated, it gets shipped to places like Ghana, where it is sold in markets. Some of the clothes can be repurposed. But a lot of it ends up as garbage.
CBS News reports that the United States is the world’s chief exporter of secondhand clothes.