Many clothing donations end up in African landfills
&gt; As it stands, lax customs enforcement — along with spotty infrastructure and the prevalence of cheap Asian imports — has made it difficult for Africa to develop a garment industry of its own.<p>Local producers are great, but they&#x27;re outnumbered ten thousand to one by local consumers. How the world would be any better if some of the world&#x27;s poorest were forced by their governments to pay <i>extra</i> money to buy inferior clothes, while some small-time politically-connected tycoon profited from it? That&#x27;s not really how prosperity works.<p>Scale back your consumption here in the US, go ahead, that&#x27;s fine, but let&#x27;s not pretend that the bales of clothing <i>smuggled</i> over the border into South Africa are harming anyone but the comfortable.