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

[Judi Lynn]

6. Opinion: As a fast fashion graveyard piles up in Chile, it's time to assess our mass consumerism

Heaps of leftover fast fashion stretch across the desert.

Fast fashion is one of the globe's top polluters. While child labour and human rights violations related to clothing factories are well known, the environmental damage caused is rarely publicised.

Images have been released that show endless mounds of clothes discarded across the Atacama desert in Chile, an odd sight in the world's driest desert and a direct result of mass consumerism in the fashion industry.

Clothes made in Bangladesh and China typically make their way to US and Europe and, when they aren't purchased, they are brought to Chile's Iquique port to be sold to other Latin-American countries. But not all are sold, and roughly 39,000 tons end up dumped in the desert every year.

According to a 2019 UN report, clothing production has doubled in the past twenty years, and the industry is "responsible for 20% of total water waste on a global level". A single pair of jeans requires 7,500 litres of water to make.

More:
https://www.her.ie/life/opinion-fast-fashion-graveyard-piles-chile-time-assess-mass-consumerism-539126


More:
https://www.her.ie/life/opinion-fast-fashion-graveyard-piles-chile-time-assess-mass-consumerism-539126