Growing poverty levels and soaring inflation have pushed millions of Pakistanis to rely on secondhand garments, transforming the country’s used-clothing market into a billion-dollar industry. But with it comes a mounting environmental cost.
According to the report by CAN, every day, truckloads of used garments from the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and other Western nations arrive in Karachi’s export processing zones.
They are destined for factories such as Silver Denim, where workers sort piles of clothes by quality before they are treated for re-export to African markets or distributed across Pakistan. Once stigmatised, wearing pre-owned clothes is becoming mainstream in the South Asian nation.
A 2023 report by the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association and other authors found that the EU exported around 1.4 million tonnes of used textiles or unwanted clothes worldwide in 2021, with Pakistan among the key destinations. That year, the EU shipped secondhand clothing worth US$46 million to Pakistan.
However, not all items exported to Pakistan make it to store shelves. When garments arrive in poor condition, many end up discarded, dumped, or even burned, adding to the country’s growing waste problem and contributing to global climate change.
Environmental experts are urging the government to tighten regulations on used clothing imports.
“The third world should not be used as a dumping ground by the first world,” said Sohail Yousaf, professor of environmental sciences at Quaid-i-Azam University.
To tackle the problem, the government has urged companies to adopt sustainable fashion practices such as recycling, upcycling and promoting locally made eco-friendly clothing.
But climate scientists warn that without global reforms and stronger safeguards, Pakistan will continue to shoulder the environmental toll of the world’s discarded clothes.
