The world's driest desert has become a dumping ground for global fast fashion, and its mountains of discarded clothes are growing even bigger.
Photos show mass piles of sweaters, boots and other thrown away clothing in Chile’s Atacama desert, which is increasingly suffering from pollution created by the fashion industry.
Around 59,000 tons of clothing arrive every year at Chile’s Iquique port, which is typically made in China or Bangladesh. It then passes through Europe, Asia or the US before making landfall in Chile. From there, the clothing is resold around Latin America.
Despite this, only a fraction of the clothes that end up in Chile are bought locally. At least 39,000 tons of it cannot be sold and ends up in landfills in the surrounding desert area of Iquique port, AFP reports.
Clothing created with synthetic materials or treated with chemicals can take 200 years to biodegrade and is as toxic as discarded tires or plastics.
Back in 2019, the UN found that the fashion industry was responsible for 8 to 10 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. To put it in context, that’s more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined.
To make a single pair of jeans requires 7,500 litres of water.
The fashion industry generates around 20 percent of the world’s wastewater and releases half a million tons of synthetic microfibers into the ocean annually.
Things in Chile are changing, though, according to Rosario Hevia, who opened a store to recycle children’s clothes before founding in 2019 Ecocitex, a company that creates yarn from pieces of discarded textiles and clothing in a poor state. The process uses neither water nor chemicals.
“For many years we consumed, and no one seemed to care that more and more textile waste was being generated,” she told AFP.
“But now, people are starting to question themselves.”
@viceworldnews
Martin Bernetti / AFP via Getty
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