Aoife McNamara on landfill in Africa: So many toxins — when we blew our noses you could see the black

Mountains and mountains of clothes, and truckloads more coming in, probably over 80% is clothing, not full garments – scraps. And you see the brands, high-street, which is scary to see. 

But also plastic bottles, rubbish, most of it non-biodegradable, so it’s never going to be gone.

And to see people living in the landfill, box houses, sheds… I almost couldn’t believe. 

All around, the waste-pickers, picking with bare hands through the rubbish trying to find something – maybe glass, metal – objects that might be valuable to them, that they could sell, make a living from.

Some were working on their own, some in twos, I saw a lot of women. There were children too, and one woman told me she was three when she started. 

People grow up on the landfill. I was there with a friend who’s a podcaster, and a film crew – we were there to make a documentary. 

We had wellies on and when we were leaving, one woman asked if she could have our wellies – she had only flip-flops on.

That woman didn’t see leaving the landfill. She just wanted something practical – wellies to wear.

The sights and sounds: big diggers sorting the rubbish. Huge birds the size of a person, white, big long red beaks, loads and loads of them eating off the landfill – meat, food comes in there too.

The smells – objects being burned to get the metal from them. So many toxins all going into the lungs – afterwards when we blew our noses you could see the black from the fumes. 

And the second-hand market of Gikomba, one of the biggest in the world – nearby, there’s a river with sewage going into it. You’d see someone going to the toilet in the river, someone else washing their feet. The burning toxins, sewage, mixed with the humidity in the air, it’s so warm there – all of it together…

As a fashion designer, I’ve always wanted to design with nature in mind and to champion sustainability. For me, nature and art came first… before fashion. As a child growing up in Limerick, going on summer holidays to Kilkee, spending hours on the beach and sea-swimming. I’ve always loved the sea. And art was always my best subject at school, I could have spent all my time in art class.

Where fashion came in… well, my mom’s very fashionable. She’d wear these power suits with over-sized shoulder pads, cinched-in waists. She always had this effortlessly classic style. I loved that for her there was no such thing as getting dressed up for an occasion – she dressed up when she wanted to. Fashion to her was about how it made her feel. So I don’t think fashion, clothes are about glamour – more like a powerful suit you put on that you can do anything in.

At Art College I really got into my own style. I remember this amazing two-piece, light grey vintage suit I bought in New York. I was 18 and interning there for Marc Jacobs. I got the suit for one of my first days working there and it really made me feel confident and empowered, that I could make change. And when I design I want it to be a garment that someone will have for ever, that has meaning, craft, time put into it.

Standing beside one of the world’s largest landfills, witnessing the reality of fashion waste first-hand, much of it dumped here from the Global North, put a fire in my belly to really want to share this, and the impacts our choices can make. For our documentary, after visiting Dandora, we also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. So the day before we left for Kilimanjaro, we were on a mountain of rubbish – and then we were climbing a beautiful mountain. The documentary, Climate Climb, is about the beauty of nature, in contrast with what we’re doing to nature.

I really had time to reflect on Kilimanjaro – no phone, off-grid for a week. Sometimes with the climate crisis, you feel hopeless – like what’s the point. This experience has given me even more of a drive to do what I’m doing, to try to make change as a designer, and to create clothes in harmony with nature.

It’s about creating a more conscious mind-set. Of course not everyone has the disposable income to buy a luxury garment. But there are loads of options – you can rent incredible garments, buy well on second-hand markets, or invest in high-quality pieces.

As horrible and sad as seeing Dandora made me feel, I am glad I saw it. It is driving me on so much more – to make a difference.

• Aoife McNamara, fashion designer and creator of Aoife Ireland brand, will be keynote guest speaker at a session entitled ‘Everyone Makes an Impact’, run by the Local Enterprise Office in partnership with Network Ireland Cork at Fota Education Centre, Fota Wildlife Park, Cork; March 5, 6.30pm-9pm.
• https://www.localenterprise.ie/SouthCork/Training-Events/ONLINE-BOOKINGS/Local-Enterprise-Week-2025-Everyone-Makes-an-Impact-A-Keynote-with-Aoife-McNamara.html