Tons of garments discarded in the Atacama desert. (Credit: AFP/MARTIN BERNETTI)
Mountains of discarded clothing are forming new dunes deep in Chile’s Atacama Desert. A heritage of the fast fashion industry. According to a report from Agence France-Presse (AFP), the massive mound of clothes consists of garments made in China and Bangladesh that make their way to stores in the US, Europe, and Asia. Some 59,000 tons of clothing arrive each year at the Iquique port in the Alto Hospicio free zone in northern Chile, at least 39,000 tons that cannot be sold end up in rubbish dumps in the desert. "The problem is that the clothing is not biodegradable and contains chemicals, which is not accepted at the municipal landfills," said Franklin Zepeda, the founder of EcoFibra, a company that makes insulation panels using discarded clothing. "I wanted to stop being the problem and start being the solution," he told AFP about the firm he created in 2018. Read the article...
Chile's desert dumping ground for fast fashion leftovers | AFP
