Every year, hundreds of millions of second-hand clothes are sold to Africa.
Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public account “Shili Village” (ID: shilipxl ), the author Tianya lives in Shili Village.
Every year, everyone buys new clothes. In 2018, the national clothing sales were 54.06 billion pieces.
But few people pay attention to old clothes, new clothes buy and buy, how to deal with old clothes?
01 The clothes are never too much
In the countryside, clothes generally have a life span of 3-4 years, especially in many middle-aged and old people.
In towns and cities, clothes generally have a life span of 1-2 years, and are even shorter for young people. But many old clothes are either discarded or piled up in the closet.
According to the data of the free fish, the idle old clothes produced by ordinary Chinese families are up to 60 pounds a year.
In today’s women’s clothing consumption, women buy at least 2 times a month, and fashion clothes only stay for one season. 80% of the clothes will be forgotten after the season, but still increase the number of clothes at a rate of 15% per year.
Men’s buying impulses are lower, with an average monthly purchase. But I will not give away my old clothes, and I will rarely discard my old clothes.
02 One year lost to Daqing Oilfield
The data shows that the average Chinese person buys about 10 new clothes per year, and 3-5 of them are discarded. The annual discarded clothes are between 26 million and 28 million tons, and the utilization rate is less than 1%, which is a huge waste.
Some people know that an important raw material for clothes fiber is crude oil, which is equivalent to discarding 24 million tons of petroleum crude oil per year, more than half of the output of Daqing Oilfield.
So at present, the handling of old clothes is mainly the following four ways:
A, charity donation
There will be many non-profit organizations or organizations collecting old clothes on a regular basis, sending them regularly to poor mountain areas in the central and western regions of China, or donating them to local people who need help through charities..
In addition, in many first- and second-tier cities, there are some old clothes recycling bins. Some of these bins are jointly owned by the government and enterprises, and some of them will be used for charitable donations after they are sorted.
But due to information asymmetry, there are many public welfare organizations or poor schools, and old clothes can’t be put down.
The first batch has not been processed yet, and the second batch has come again. Some departments have received donated old clothes in 2009, and now they still have more than 100,000 pieces.
And the cost of donating old clothes is actually very high. From the aspects of recycling, sorting, disinfection, cleaning, packaging, and distribution, the donation cost of an old clothes is about 12-15 yuan.
B, sell or give someone
More than 500,000 pieces of old clothes are resold every month, and the young people after 95 are the main force, accounting for 34%.
After 95, young people are not only willing to buy old clothes, but also have a strong willingness to accept old clothes. 30% of old clothes donations on the idle fish are included in the bag after 95.
Of course, women are more willing to deal with second-hand clothing sales, four times more than men.
C, reprocessing
Whether it is a personal trader or an institution, most of the old clothes will eventually be recycled and sorted by the recycling plant.
Unable to make a second sale, but not for the old clothes used for burning.
After being sorted, the recyclables will be sold to downstream suppliers for greenhouse insulation, environmental protection gloves, environmental protection bags, soundproof cotton, and building materials.
D, resell
Either way, it is not the most economically profitable.
For merchants specializing in the recycling of used clothes, 90% of the new clothes are sorted out and sold for a second time to make money.
At present, most of the family’s living conditions in the country have been significantly improved, and most of them will not buy old clothes.
Because in China, it is very convenient to buy clothes, it is very cheap, there are many styles, and very few old clothes flow into the local market.
Where did these huge quantities of old clothes go to the second place?
The answer is: Africa! Yes, it is Africa, and it is very profitable!
For example, in March 2018, the idle fish carried out the old clothes recycling program, and by the end of the year, a total of 8438 tons, about 40 million pieces of clothing. 45% of the clothes enter the underdeveloped countries or regions such as Africa.
03 Why does Africa need
The second-hand clothing trade in Africa is prevalent, and there are several other reasons besides historical reasons.
A, novel fashion: Domestic clothes are fashionable and stylish, and the update speed is very fast. Some new clothes, from design to market, take only half a month. African people also love beauty and love fashion. There are many styles of old clothes, and there are many brand goods, which are more selective.
B, good quality: Although some African countries have begun to vigorously develop their own textile industry decades ago, it is definitely incomparable with China, a manufacturing powerhouse. . Almost all the famous brand costumes in the world are found in China.
Therefore, even the second-hand clothes that have already passed through are of much better quality than the local African clothing. Of course, this has something to do with the recycling companies when sorting, and many clothes are new.
C, cheap: The price of second-hand clothes is only about 35% of the price of new clothes. For example, a brand new short-sleeved price is 7.5 dollars, while the price of second-hand old short sleeves It is 2.8 dollars. Such a clear price gap has made most poor Africans unable to refuse.
04 Make money in Africa
So how do you sell the old clothes picked up and sell them to Africa?
Guangzhou is the largest second-hand clothing distribution center. It has a mature industrial chain from acquisition, sorting, disinfection, cleaning, packaging and shipping.
A: Benefit Chain
In Guangzhou, there are thousands of second-hand clothes vendors every day, active in various communities in Guangzhou, most of them Henan and Anhui.
Ride a tricycle every day, sip, and sell old clothes.
Brause 2.5 yuan / kg, belt 0.5 yuan / kg, clothes 1.5 yuan / kg, jeans, leather bags, shoes are received according to pieces.
Receive and return to your storage point, and then sort it and then sell it to the recycle bin.
But these people are the sellers at the very end of the entire supply chain, they can only