ABOUT SECOND LIFE
ABOUT SECOND LIFE AFRICA
Second Life Africa, shops selling used clothing and accessories, is a trade name of Parenga Africa sarl. Parenga Africa was incorporated in February 2019 in Niamey, the capital of the Republic of Niger.
What is the Secondlife project?
The Secondlife Africa project aims to offer "Grade A" quality handpicked second-hand items at low and affordable prices to meet the needs of the low-income population of the African continent by starting operations in one of the most poorest countries world, Republic of Niger (2020 GDP per capita: USD 565.10 / Source: World Bank), and plans to expand into other West African countries in the near future.
Secondlife hopes to achieve this goal by mastering the sourcing and procurement process of these items mainly from European second-hand markets, by mastering logistics and optimizing transport and warehousing costs and by working on an economic model that minimizes operational overheads.
In addition, the Secondlife project will contribute to the creation of local jobs while providing business to local horizontal companies such as, for example, in the transport, logistics or warehousing sector.
Secondlife will also provide training to its staff in front and back office management, customer relations, sales, sorting and warehousing, inventory control, logistics, shelving, store keeping and in any other field related to its activity.
How is Secondlife different?
The Secondlife project aims to provide quality second-hand clothing and accessories at a low and affordable price targeting mainly low-income populations in Africa. It is well known that such a population rarely has access to a similar brand new item because of the high costs that result from it, the complexity of the purchasing and delivery circuit, respect for budgetary priorities and above all, the purchasing power.
The Secondlife project aims to fully control the supply process, logistics, transport, warehousing and point of sale logistics, thus controlling costs and overheads while creating local employment opportunities.
The Secondlife project encourages recycling and aims to be respectful of the environment and reduce its carbon footprint. By purchasing large volumes in bulk and optimizing transport, the Secondlife project helps reduce plastic pollution caused by small volume packaging and greenhouse gas emissions such as CO2 etc during transport.
By favoring a first sorting at the departure of the goods, the Secondlife project contributes to the reduction of textile waste on arrival on the African continent.
Second Life Africa supports the operations of NGOs and charitable and non-profit associations in Africa in order to promote sorting and recycling, ecology and eco-responsibility, humanitarian actions, social and charitable works and related activities towards the modest population. In this context, a first operation of clothing donation for orphan children is already planned at Niamey in partnership withNGO Les Reines Daura.
Textile recycling and eco-responsibility: The figures speak for themselves ...
- The water consumption for world cotton production is equivalent to the water consumption of the world population;
- It takes about 8000 liters of water to make a jeans (denim), equvalant to 8 years of water consumption by an adult;
- It takes about 2500 liters of water to make a t-shirt, that is 4 to 5 years of water consumption of a child;
- The textile industry consumed 79 billion m² of water in 2015 and this figure has continued to increase since (2020 estimate is over 95 billion cubic meters);
- Synthetic fabrics such as polyester participate in air and water pollution by releasing microfibers especially during the disposal of clothing, these particles are not biodegradable;
- 0.5 million tons of microfibers reach the oceans each year, thus contributing 35% to the planet's “microplastics” pollution, thus directly impacting our living environment;
- The textile industry is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, this is higher than the combined emission of gases by the aviation and maritime industries;
- Textile factories generate a fifth of the world's industrial water pollution, responsible for 20%, and use around 20,000 different chemicals, many of which can be carcinogenic;
- In Europe each person sheds more than 10 kilos of clothes per year. Used clothing can be exported outside the EU but is mostly (87%) incinerated or landfilled. Europe has 746.4 million inhabitants (2018 figures) and this textile waste exceeds 7.5 million tonnes per year;
- Globally today, less than 1% of these garments are recycled as second-hand garments, in part due to inadequate technology in collection, storage, sorting and recycling process.
What does the Second Life logo mean?
The Second Life logo reflects our vision: Green to reveal eco-responsibility, arrows to demonstrate the recycling and recovery of good quality used objects in order to give them a " Second life », The heart shape to affirm the desire to be ethical and fair towards the population and finally the stylish writing and the color blue to express joy, imagination, freedom, determination and sincerity.
For any inquiries, please contact us by e-mail: contact @ secondlife.africa
Version: July 2021