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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent

‘Because secondhand is feckin’ grand’: how clothes swapping became huge in Ireland

Ireland
An aerial view of waves washing up tons of disarded clothing
Discarded secondhand clothes cover the beach in the coastal fishing community of Jamestown in Accra, the capital of Ghana. Photograph: Muntaka Chasant/Rex/Shutterstock

Mary Fleming was on holiday in Kenya when she saw it: a mound of secondhand clothes heaped by a river, the pile so vast and unruly it was spilling into the water.

The sight shocked her. At home in Ireland she was a passionate shopper and bought a new outfit almost every weekend. Now in east Africa she was seeing the consequence of fast fashion and mass consumption.

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