Dead White Man's Clothes - Atmos | Part 4: A Planet Full of Waste

Roughly 15 million garments flow through Kantamanto per week. Our research reveals that 40% of this leaves the market as waste (usually within 2 weeks of landing at Tema Harbour). Waste is built into the business model of fashion, and yet this inevitable byproduct of production is an afterthought. As a society we tend to think of “the away” as a mythical place where stuff just “goes” because for most of us this waste is out of sight, out of mind. But after years of tracking Kantamanto’s waste, digging through dumpsites and climbing landfills, we can tell you that “the away” does exist. The places where our waste ends up are on google maps, you can drop a pin & friends can join you there. This is important because what may be shocking, or unreal, to us is everyday reality for the millions of people who call “The Away” home. What has become so obvious, amidst the coronavirus pandemic, is that the people who are most impacted by this crisis globally are also afterthoughts, just like the waste that so often forms their environment. People who are houseless, refugees, “slum dwellers”, the kayayei, Wastepickers— there is no plan for these people. Their poverty is the inevitable byproduct of greed & structural inequality and yet their struggles are out of sight, out of mind, for most of us. This video opens with drone footage of the dump just outside Asana’s room in Old Fadama. We have been working with our partners to provide relief aid to kayayei like Asana who are stranded ther