A mountain of unsold clothing from fast fashion retailers is piling up in the Chilean desert [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Cheryl Teh 8 hours ago

Heaps of unworn clothes are being discarded in the Chilean desert, adding to a swiftly swelling graveyard of fast fashion lines past.

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The AFP found that around 59,000 tons of clothing end up at the port in Chile every year. Of that amount, 39,000 tons are moved into landfills in the desert. Alex Carreno, a former employee at the Iquique port's import section, told the AFP the clothing "arrives from all over the world." Carreno added that most of the clothes are later disposed of when the shipments can't be re-sold across Latin America.

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"The problem is that the clothing is not biodegradable and has chemical products, so it is not accepted in the municipal landfills," said Franklin Zepeda, founder of EcoFibra, a company that is trying to make use of the discarded clothing by making insulation panels out of them.

For one, the fashion industry accounts for 8 to 10% of the world's carbon emissions, per the UN. In 2018, the fashion industry was also found to consume more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined. Researchers estimate that the equivalent of a garbage truck of clothes is burned and sent to a landfill every second.

More:
https://www.insider.com/discarded-fast-fashion-clothes-chile-desert-2021-11

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Chile’s desert dumping ground for fast fashion leftovers

Chile’s Atacama, the driest desert in the world, is increasingly suffering from pollution caused by fast fashion.



Used clothes discarded in the Atacama Desert, in Alto Hospicio, Iquique, Chile. [Martin Bernetti/AFP]
Published On 8 Nov 2021
A mountain of discarded clothing, including Christmas sweaters and ski boots, cuts a strange sight in Chile’s Atacama, the driest desert in the world, which is increasingly suffering from pollution created by fast fashion.

The social effect of rampant consumerism in the clothing industry – such as child labour in factories or derisory wages – is well-known, but the disastrous effect on the environment is less publicised.

Chile has long been a hub of second-hand and unsold clothing, made in China or Bangladesh and passing through Europe, Asia or the United States before arriving in Chile, where it is resold around Latin America.

Some 59,000 tonnes of clothing arrive each year at the Iquique port in the Alto Hospicio free zone in northern Chile.

Clothing merchants from the capital Santiago, 1,800km (1,100 miles) to the south, buy some, while much is smuggled out to other Latin American countries. But at least 39,000 tonnes that cannot be sold end up in rubbish dumps in the desert.

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More:
https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2021/11/8/chiles-desert-dumping-ground-for-fast-fashion-leftovers