A pile of discarded clothing weighing more than 60,000 tonnes has built up in Chile's Atacama Desert, near the city of Alto Hospicio and the Iquique free trade zone in the country's north, according to numerous sources cited in the report. The accumulation is so large it can be seen in satellite images.
The site receives shipments of used clothing and unsold commercial stock from various markets, including Europe. Some of the garments are sold in Chile or redistributed to other Latin American countries, but the rest loses its commercial value, and dealing with it becomes a cost that is often passed on to the local area.
From port to dump
Shipments enter through the port of Iquique and go through sorting and resale circuits before whatever finds no buyer is left abandoned. Synthetic fibers make the clothing difficult to break down, and when fires break out, polyester and other petroleum-derived materials can release smoke and leave melted residue on the ground.
The Chilean collective Desierto Vestido and the organization Eko have documented labels from numerous international brands among the discarded clothing, pointing to a global supply chain in which surplus stock travels thousands of kilometers with no guarantee it will ever be reused.
Residents bear the impact
People living in Alto Hospicio face the most direct consequences. Smoke from the burning garments can reach populated areas, and clearing away tonnes of textiles requires resources, machinery and somewhere for the waste to go. Exporting a used garment, the report notes, is no guarantee it will get a second life.
A shared responsibility
Chile has begun responding through the courts and administrative measures, but the report says the root of the problem lies with the countries that produce, consume and export clothing at high speed. It points to measures such as a reparability index for other goods as evidence that better information can extend a product's life, arguing the textile industry needs similar traceability to track what happens to clothing after it is collected.
Buying less, choosing durable garments, and repairing and reusing clothes can ease the pressure, though consumers alone cannot fix an entire industrial supply chain. Manufacturers, distributors and waste managers need to fund systems to handle the surplus. The mix of cotton, elastane and polyester in many garments, along with zippers and chemical treatments, makes sorting and recycling more expensive.
The Atacama pile is described as the visible result of decisions made far from Chile, including fast fashion collections, impulsive purchases, returns and exports with no guaranteed buyer. According to the report, the solution has to start before the shipping container, with less surplus produced and responsibility for each garment following it to its final destination.
