This World Oceans Day, Help The Or Foundation Clean Up Waste Colonialism!

 

The following advertisement from the Or Foundation has been sent to you via Mother Jones' email list. Mother Jones is a nonprofit, and most of our budget comes from readers like you, but revenue from advertisers helps us produce more of the hard-hitting journalism you expect. We never disclose your information to an advertiser. Mother Jones does not endorse any candidate, political organization, commercial product, or service, and the views expressed in this email do not constitute any endorsement or recommendation by Mother Jones.

Dear Mother Jones Reader, Happy World Oceans Day from The Or Foundation!  We celebrate World Oceans Day everyday as we rally for collective action to seek justice for the ocean that gives us all life and that has been deeply impacted by Waste Colonialism.  Waste Colonialism is when a group of people uses waste and pollution to dominate another group of people in their homeland. This is too often the dynamic when countries throughout the Global North export the clothes they can no longer use to countries throughout the Global South where vastly under resourced infrastructure is overwhelmed by the inevitable result of fashion’s overproduction and an ecological crisis emerges.  Picture of Accra community groups, Kanta Keepers and Tide Turners, along with team members of The Or Foundation removing a tentacle of textiles that was buried underneath the beach. In Accra, Ghana, textile waste is rapidly polluting the water, devastating the wildlife, destroying the beaches, and poisoning our communities. How does a t-shirt donated in Durham, NC end up in a tangled mass on a beach in Accra? Every week, 15 million items are baled up and sent to Kantamanto Market, the largest secondhand market in the world. Many of those 15 million items will not be resold, repaired, or upcycled. Our research has indicated that around 40% of the average secondhand clothing bale opened within the market will end up leaving the market as waste. Due to resource constraints, Accra lacks the infrastructure necessary to manage this waste, leaving much of this textile waste to be disposed of in informal settlements, burn piles, or swept into the open gutter where they will eventually wash out to sea, wrapping around themselves and creating massive clothing tentacles. Our team at The Or Foundation is committed to recovering and rebuilding. Every week in Accra, Ghana, we conduct tag audits where we search and record any visible and accessible fashion tags to trace the brands whose business model produces the waste in the first place, and we hold beach cleanups where we remove an average of 10 tons each week. Our ocean is not a neutral space. Patterns of overconsumption and overproduction fueled by wealthier nations have exploited the shared resource for centuries, leaving the Global South to bear the brunt of the consequences. By cleaning up our oceans, we are not only removing harmful textiles and debris, but we’re also sending a message that environmental justice must go hand in hand with the fight for social justice.  Mother Jones Reader, this World Oceans Day, we invite you to contribute to our efforts to recover and rebuild, to bring Accra’s coastal ecosystem back to life and to hold global brands accountable to the business model of disposable fashion, because our ocean is not disposable. It is life. Happy World Oceans Day! In Solidarity, The Or Foundation Team P.S. The Or Foundation is Hiring! Visit us to learn more about our open positions, stay in contact, and follow us on Instagram! The Or Foundation 603 Southern Liberia Rd Accra, Ghana

Mother Jones and its nonprofit publisher, The Center for Investigative Reporting, do not endorse any political candidate, political organization, commercial product, process, or service, and the views expressed in this communication do not constitute an endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by Mother Jones. For advertising opportunities see our online media kit. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today. www.MotherJones.com PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755