Fast fashion's slow, dry decay - 18th February 2021

Chile's Atacama Desert is being covered with clothing. This waste is also polluting the world's driest desert.

Chile's a global destination for unsold clothes from Asia, Europe and the US. From here, South America's clothing merchants select the best to sell on. However, 39,000 tonnes of rejected clothing fills the desert every year.

It'll take some items 200 years to biodegrade because many fabrics are synthetic or were treated with chemicals. The dumps also cause other problems, explains Moyra Rojas, Regional Secretary of the Environment Ministry.

Moyra Rojas: "These small scale rubbish dumps generate some fire incidents, which obviously produce air pollution. And some are also located near populated areas."

Some are now responding to the country's fast fashion problem. Franklin Zepeda's set up EcoFibra, which is turning the waste into insulation for the building industry.

Franklin Zepeda: "The waste is what used to go to the desert rubbish dump and now we are using it as a raw material to make our thermal insulation panels."

A 2019 UN report revealed that clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014. It's now responsible for 20 percent of the world's water waste annually, and 8 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

However, demand for fast fashion clothing remains high. Ecocitex textile recycling is a social enterprise in Chile. Its CEO, Rosario Hevia, puts her faith in education.

Rosario Hevia: "The main solution to eliminating textile waste in Chile is to educate people about reducing their consumption of unnecessary textiles, and to take charge of extending the lifespan of it - the clothing."

Chile's poor and immigrants from Venezuela search through the dumped clothing. They can't miss this opportunity to clothe their families.