In Ghana, west Africa, tons of discarded clothing have washed up on a beach.

Unsettling images from Ghana’s capital Accra show massive mounds of wet clothing spread across the sand, many of which are believed to have been purchased from Britain and other western countries.

Only the United States exports more clothing trash globally, according to environmental sustainability organisation WRAP, with up to 70% of waste clothing from retail and donation going abroad.

The charity pointed out that most of the clothes sent to West Africa from the UK and America cannot be resold as a result of their poor condition and these clothes end up being a major contributor to pollution.

Photographs from the coastal fishing community of Jamestown in Accra show the scale of the problem.

One picture shows a man stepping over a mound of clothes that extends from the sand into the sea.

Other pictures from the scene show the items under the water, with the pollution problem now affecting both land and sea.

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