Kenyan influencer fights fast fashion waste reel by reel

DW (English)

Social media influencer Janet Chemitei draws attention to textile waste and fashion industry pollution. She encourages young people to embrace slow fashion by repairing and reusing clothes.

Transcript

00:00The Dandora dump site on the outskirts of Nairobi covers 30 acres and is one of the

00:06largest in the world.

00:10Jannet Chemite often comes here to document the mountains of waste with her cell phone.

00:15Hi everyone, my name is Chemite Jannet, I'm a waste and slow fashion educator and today

00:22we're here in Dandora dump site to see the type of waste that ends up here and I'm especially

00:29interested in seeing the textile waste that ends up in the dump site.

00:34With such reels, the environmental activist wants to raise awareness of the problems caused

00:38by the fast fashion industry, quickly produced cheap clothes that are thrown away just as

00:43quickly, causing ever-growing mountains of waste in many countries.

00:50When people see my videos, most of them are usually very shocked, especially the ones

00:55in Kenya.

00:56When you think about Dandora, for example, people know that there's a dump site there

01:01but they don't know how it looks like.

01:04So when they see all these things that happen, they're so curious and most of them respond

01:09that they want to make changes in their lives.

01:12Jannet Chemite is trying to convince people to change their behaviour and live more sustainably,

01:18and huge numbers of people get her message via her social media accounts.

01:22Her most successful video to date has been seen more than 10 million times.

01:33For me, the most important thing is that the comments and the engagements that I got were

01:38of people just appreciating that they were learning something that they didn't really

01:44know about their clothes and the fashion industry, which is something that I always aim for when

01:50I'm sharing these videos because I want people to learn and to see the reality of the fashion

01:55industry on the ground.

01:57It's been calculated that the fashion industry produces up to 10 percent of the emissions

02:01that cause climate change.

02:03The massive oversupply in developed economies means huge amounts of textiles are dumped

02:08as second-hand goods in countries such as Kenya.

02:12It's an unsustainable situation that has scientists worried.

02:18If we have 185,000 tons coming in per year, then definitely we'll be having 185,000 tons

02:28to be thrown away, either next year or five years down the line, because these are only

02:32second-hand clothes.

02:33We also have new clothes coming in, so we have a minimum of 200,000 tons of textile

02:41waste that we have to deal with in Kenya per year.

02:45One solution Jeannette Chimite offers in her videos is to treat clothes with more respect.

02:50She regularly searches for interesting pieces at the Gikomba second-hand market and shows

02:56her followers how to make them look chic again with little effort.

03:12In addition to her digital activities, the 28-year-old also gives workshops and lectures,

03:38like here at the Fair Fashion Festival in Nairobi.

03:42At the event, local designers and artists showcase their collections made from recycled

03:46and sustainable materials.

03:50There's also a kind of swap shop where visitors can swap second-hand clothes.

03:57You don't have to buy new clothes to be stylish or to refresh your wardrobe.

04:04People have so many clothes already that they have bought and they're not wearing it.

04:07So you come to events like this where you bring a number of clothes and then you extend

04:12it with someone else, and that helps us embrace slow fashion in a way.

04:18Embracing slow fashion as a counter-concept to fast fashion not only ensures less waste,

04:23it also saves money.

04:24In Jeannette Chimite's experience, once people have learned about it and understand, they

04:29find it useful.

04:31That's why it's so important to keep promoting it, she says.

04:35When I see young people encouraging each other to attend more sustainable fashion events,

04:42going to clothing swaps, buying second-hand, making their own clothes, it makes me so happy

04:47because it means that the work that we're doing in this space is reaching more people

04:53and that the fashion industry is going to change for sure.

05:00And it can even be fun.

05:02Instead of buying a new piece of clothing, she crochets it herself.

05:07And while she's doing it, she's probably already working on an idea for her next reel.

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