CLOSING THE LOOP: How ACT Is Revolutionizing Pre-Loved African Fashion
From Nairobi’s vibrant mitumba markets to Lagos’ dynamic fashion hustle, textile waste is a reality we see — but rarely talk about.
Africa Collect Textiles (ACT) is changing the narrative. We sat down with Elmar, the Dutch-born founder, who’s making waves by turning fashion’s throw-aways into social and environmental treasure.
Elmar, tell us a bit about yourself and how ACT was born?
I am Elmar, and I am Dutch. I learned during my first job a lot about the global second hand clothing trade. And I believe the trade can be more circular, fair and inclusive. Even though second hand clothing trade offers affordable clothing and saves a lot of CO2 and water (as it prevents many new items from being produced), it also enhances inequality between countries.
The Netherlands has benefitted tremendously from selling used textiles to Africa. The profits funded city councils, charites and collection and recycling infrastructure. The country has a collection rate of 50%, while Kenya is stuck around 0.1%. I feel that a collection and recycling sector offers great opportunities, socially and environmentally, and it would have a great impact when importing nations can benefit as well from such sector.
Alex Musembi - Co-Founder of Africa Collect Textiles & General Manager
What exactly does ACT do — and how is it making fashion more circular?
With ACT we aim to close the global fashion loop. We have 41 collection points across Nairobi and 20 in Lagos. We also offer a pick-up service for large / bulky items / volumes. We pick used clothing, unsold 2nd hand clothes from 2nd hand markets, uniforms from business and sometime off-cuts.
After sorting we supply women with wearable items for them to sell in the outskirts of Nairobi / Lagos and make a living. We ship recyclable materials to international recyclers. We upcycle materials ourselves in rugs, baskets, toys, bags, etc. We apply typical Kenyan crafts when upcycling textiles, preserving the crafts and making sure vulnerable communities are include in the circular fashion transition.
Some of our products are sold in Europe or the UK, making sure fashion become truly circular and goes back where it came from (in the case we upcycle mitumba). This way we make sure there is a more equal exchange of funds and Kenya is not only helping the Global North to offload their rejected items, but income is generated by selling upcycled and meaningful goods.
How do you define sustainability, especially in the African fashion context?
Sustainable fashion, ethical fashion, eco fashion, conscious
consumerism… there are so many aspects to achieving sustainability in fashion – what area(s of sustainability does your organization lean more towards and how are you able to achieve that?
Everything is connected. The design stage is influencing the end-of-life stage.
By collection clothes in ‘receiving’ nations we aim to influence brands to apply eco-design when designing their clothes.
Currently the fashion chain is predominantly linear. Brands will most likely never see their items back, because many ‘disappear’ in African landfills, rivers, beaches or burning sites. For them to apply eco-design, they need to be guaranteed that items do not disappear. Because why apply (expensive) eco-design or change your ways, if at the end of the garments’ life they are not collected, sorted and processed accordingly.
By showing that ‘away is not really away’ and that textile waste is an issue in Africa, but that there are ways to recycle them, we hope to influence the brands’ design choices. They should design on our recycling capabilities.
Also, when garments would be bio-degradable or compostable, they have to be collected separately from the normal trash. Because when circular-designed items are burned, they have similar negative impact as a non-circular item
How would you describe sustainability in your own words according toyour brand ethos?
We enable circularity by collecting, sorting and recycling textiles. We are connecting the end with the beginning. And that is just one piece of the puzzle.
Are there any future plans your company is having to become even moresustainable?
We aim to install fiberisation technology this year and recover fibers that are suitable for spinning. Kenya has a huge opportunity to control all circular steps within one country. This is because the production of cotton, yarn and fabrics is already existing and of high standard.
Were you always in the sustainability space? If not, what is yourbackground and what are the challenges of transitioning?
I have been involved in sustainable projects since my studies. Most jobs I had were about impact entrepreneurship, social design and human centered design. I worked in Kampala for Design without Borders and I Amsterdam for design studio REGGS, organisations that have social and environmental sustainability as top priorities.
Is sustainable fashion a sustainable business? Why? How can the businessenvironment be improved?
It is very challenging. Upcycled items is still very niche and very expensive as it takes many more steps (collection, sorting, cleaning, processing, removing buttons and zippers,etc) that just taking a new role and start cutting. Upcycling is still too slow to compete with faster models. We aim to make upcycled products faster and cheaper, to make it more mainstream. To reach to a specific level the circular fashion space requires big investments, just as the linear space required. When the EU or other continents pass laws that every garment requires at least 20% of recycled content, we will understand why every country needs an ACT. Kenya has to be able to produce circular fashion, otherwise it might be excluded from many markets. Circular fashion is not a nice-to-have anymore, but will be a must to make sure people can be dressed affordably and businesses remain operational.
Are there any particular policies governing the sector that you believeto help to make sustainable more easily accessible? Are there anypolicies that you believe hinder progress in sustainability.
- New Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation on fashion will hopefully unlock the investments that are needed to scale up or transfer our model (to other cities / countries). We hope EPR fees (some countries collect 3-6 euro cent per garment as a ‘waste-tax’) will travel with clothing to their final destination. When mitumba is sold to Kenya, this fee should travel with it. This will require PRO’s, Producer Responsible Organisations, to exchange funds, which have to be invest in end-of-life solutions.
- Secondly, it is already illegal to burn textiles, uniforms, off-cuts in the open air. But unfortunately it still happens a lot. We hope to offer more sustainable services to companies or governmental bodies (army/police) to process their textiles in a safe and secure way. Support from governments or NGO’s would be great to solve these challenges, for us to increase our capacity.
Final Word: A Fashion Future Rooted in Africa
ACT is proving that sustainable African fashion isn’t a distant dream — it’s already happening. From Ankara upcycled into bags, to waste turned into work, the brand is redefining how we see fashion waste.
