Why do tons of unused clothes accumulate in the Atacama desert?

The desired garment, the ideal size and the dream brand: it is not a large store or a generous closet, but the Atacama desert in Chile, turned into a clandestine dump of clothing that is bought, wears and pulls in the United States, Europe and Asia.Colorful hills rise in the desolate landscape.They are balls that grow as about 59.000 tons annually enter the free zone of the port of Iquique, at 1.800 kilometers from Santiago.

The excessive and fleeting consumption of clothing, with chains capable of getting more than 50 seasons of new products per year, has exponentially grow textile waste in the world, which takes about 200 years to disintegrate.

It is clothes made in China or Bangladesh and bought in Berlin or Los Angeles, before being discarded.At least 39.000 tons end as hidden garbage desert inside in the area of Alto Hospicio, in northern Chile, one of the final destinations of “second -hand” clothing or past seasons of fashionable fashion chains.

Chile is the first importer of used clothing in Latin America.For about 40 years there has been a solid trade of “American clothing” in stores throughout the country, which are supplied with bales bought by free zone from the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia.

"This clothes come from all over the world," explains Alex Carreño, former worker in the import area of the port of Iquique, who lives next to a landfill.

In that area of importers and preferential taxes, the country's merchants select the garments for their stores and what is left over cannot leave the customs of this region of just over 300 thousand inhabitants."What was not sold to Santiago or went to other countries for smuggling, stay here because it is a free zone," says Carreño.

On the desert landscape there are spots of all kinds of garbage, and many are clothes, wallets and shoes.Ironically, rain or ski boots are seen in one of the most arid areas in the world.

A lady has half a sunk body in a mount of clothes and rolling in search of the best possible to sell them in her neighborhood.On the other hand, Sofia and Jenny, two young Venezuelan who crossed a few days ago the border between Bolivia and Chile -about 350 kilometers from the landfill -choose "things for the cold" while their babies crawl on textile mountains: "We come to look forclothing because we don't really have it, we threw it all when we had been backing here ”.

Toxic fashion

Reports on the textile industry have exposed the high cost of fast fashion, with subpagated workers, complaints of child employment and deplorable conditions to produce in series.To this today are added devastating figures on its environmental impact, comparable to that of the oil industry.

According to a 2019 UN study, the production of clothing in the world doubled between 2000 and 2014, which has evidenced that it is an industry “responsible for 20% of the total waste of water globally”.The same report indicates that only jeans production requires 7.500 liters of water, emphasizes that the manufacture of clothing and footwear generates 8% of greenhouse gases, and that “every second is buried or burned with an amount of textiles equivalent to a garbage truck”.

In these textile dumps it is possible to stumble with a flag of the United States, a couple of embroidered skirts, see a “wall” of pants with labels and even step on a collection of sweater with popular Christmas motifs at the December parties in London or New York.

"The problem is that clothing is not biodegradable and has chemicals, so it is not accepted in municipal landfills," said Franklin Zepeda, founder of Ecofibra, a circular economy firm with a panel production plant with thermal insulation in thermal insulation inBase of these disposable clothes.

Under the ground there are more covered garments with the help of municipal trucks, in an attempt to avoid causes caused and very toxic by the chemicals and synthetic fabrics that compose it.But buried or sight clothes also give off pollutants in the air and towards the groundwater napas typical of the desert ecosystem.Fashion is as toxic as tires or plastics.

Chile is the first clothing consumer in Latin America and also the first importer of the second -hand garment region from Asia, Europe, the United States and Canada.Ecofibra, Ecocitex and Sowing have made the textile residue their raw material.While the UN warns that in the world "every second is buried or burned" the equivalent of a textile garbage truck, in Chile Franklin Zepeda, Rosario Hevia and Mónica Zarini give new lives to that garbage.

Wind runs in favor of recycling the waste generated by the textile industry, which will be included in the producer's extended responsibility law, which forces imports of clothing and textiles to take care of their waste.

In the heat of cotton

Zepeda worked almost 10 years in the Free Zone of Iquique, north of the country, and began advising used imports used, but seeing such amount of textile waste made him take a turn.

“I wanted to get out of the problem and enter the solution,” says the founder of Ecofibra, startup that since 2018 continues to grow.The ecological insulator that they have developed in Ecofibra leads them to process up to 40 tons of used clothes per month in alliance with Zofri, the free zone in Iquique, and support of the environmental authorities of Tarapacá.

There they separate cotton clothes from those with synthetic and polyester fabrics, for which they developed a special fluid that gives them an igniphed property.With eco-panels, prefabricated houses are made accessible to social housing, replacing the highly polluting glass or mineral wool.

Zepeda remembers when he saw on his motorcycle "mountains of clothing garbage in the world's most arid desert, and I said no, I have to do something": their thermal insulation panels "are the only ones in Latin America certified under the rules of construction", he says proud to elaborate "in a small commune a high -impact product".

100% recycled yarn

Tired of her work in corporate finance and with two young children, Rosario Hevia started with a naughty, a reuse of children's clothing, where she discovers the big problem of disused clothes.Inspired by reducing the textile waste from Chile, Ecocitex found in an old spin at the bankruptcy gates after the 2019 social crisis.He excited his workers to follow the trade, but to manufacture spin made of clothing in poor condition and textile pieces.

Today Hevia has a 100% recycled product, without using water or tinctures in an innovative process with "clothes that will end in landfills".With international recognition and customer expansion in Chile, he argues that his country "lives a turning point".

“For many years it was consumed and nobody seemed to care and more and more waste was generated more and more waste.Today people are starting to question ”and they are worried about taking care of the planet, he says optimistic.

"We wear the problem"

From Sow, an echo explorer field in Nogales -Chile's Center -Mónica Zarini has been promoting entrepreneurship with social impact and studying the route of the used clothing to find recycling solutions for more than 20 years to find recycling solutions to find recycling solutions.From the used clothes they make lamps, containers, notebooks, bags, boxes and even collections for corporate gifts.

This month his project "we put the problem".

Commercial policies in the Fast Fashion industry "have helped us convince us that clothes make us more beautiful, which gives us a style and even heals anguish," says Zarini.

"Consumers who know the environmental damage that this activity causes, attributes the problem to industries and the lack of regulations", but "the problem is wearing," he warns.

By Paula Bustamante, AFP.-

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