Deep in Chile’s Atacama Desert are piles of unsold clothing rising like synthetic dunes, caused by fashion and cheap online clothing stores.
Most of the world’s clothing is produced in China, literally on the other side of the world, according to Chile. But the bulk of the clothes that are not sold in Europe, North America and Asia come here.
Leftover and second-hand clothing are sold to traders who take their imports from the port of Iquique in the Alto Hospicio free zone in northern Chile. While buyers in the southern capital of Chile, Santiago, buy some of the clothing and redistribute it in Latin America and beyond, most of it goes unsold and is eventually dumped into the Atacama Desert, a vast desert traditionally hundreds of miles away.
A 2021 review by Greenpeace Germany shows that on average up to 20 tons of old clothing are dumped illegally in the Atacama Desert every day. According to the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, a total of 39,000 tons of discarded textile piles are located in this region.
This growing heap is a relatively new problem. It is estimated that global apparel production doubled between 2000 and 2014, with the average consumer now purchasing 60 percent more garments than in the early 2000s. At the same time, people keep every piece of clothing for half the time compared to the past.
In total, an estimated 87 percent of discarded textiles end up in the landfill, with the vast majority being suitable for recycling and reuse.
Tucked between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, the Atacama Desert, the driest place in the world apart from the poles, where some regions have not seen a drop of rain for centuries, stands out as a fascinating and unique place beyond the piles of clothing. This impressive environment is also used by NASA to train scientists who aim to search for signs of life on Mars.
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