In Chile’s Atacama Desert, there is an ever-expanding “graveyard” of clothing. These are discarded or unworn garments, primarily produced in Bangladesh or China and then shipped to retail stores in the US, Europe, and Asia, before eventually making their way to Chile when they fail to sell, as reported by Business Insider on May 23.
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At least 39,000 tons of such clothing accumulated in the Atacama Desert in 2021, according to AFP. They are predominantly fast fashion items—cheap, rapidly produced garments following the latest trends.
On May 11, SkyFi, a developer of satellite image and video applications, shared high-resolution satellite images of this clothing graveyard. “The image has a resolution of 50 cm, categorized as Very High Resolution and captured by satellite. It shows the magnitude of the landfill compared to the city below,” SkyFi wrote.
These clothes are not taken to the city’s landfills as they are not biodegradable and often contain chemical products, stated Franklin Zepeda, the founder of EcoFibra, a company dedicated to recycling clothes by producing insulation panels.
The unused clothing mountain is located near the port of Iquique, about 1.6 km away from poorer residential areas of the city. The landfill sometimes attracts migrants and local women who come to search for wearable or sellable items.
The fast fashion industry contributes to 2% – 8% of global carbon emissions, as reported by the United Nations in 2018. According to an Insider article in 2019, nearly 85% of textile products are discarded each year, and the production of fashion consumes a significant amount of water while polluting rivers and streams. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation in the UK estimates that every second, about one garbage truck of clothing is either incinerated or sent to landfills.