Made in China, dumped in Chile: where world’s unwanted clothes go
- Every year, almost 40,000 tonnes of second-hand and unsold clothing ends up in Chile desert dump
- Discarded clothing arrives from all over the world, where it is added to growing piles of textiles
A mountain of discarded clothing including Christmas jumpers 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 impact 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.
“This clothing arrives from all over the world,” Alex Carreno, a former employee in the port’s import area, said.