Dear MEL Topic Readers,
The fast fashion graveyard in Chile's Atacama Desert
The Atacama Desert stretches 1,600 kilometers between the Pacific coast and the Andes Mountains in Chili. It is the driest and the largest fog desert in the world with an annual rainfall of just about 15 millimeters on average. Though the lack of humidity, rain, and light pollution all together produce a dusty, rocky landscape, over 500 flora species have evolved in the desert. Also, outside of the aridest area, lizards and birds live permanently.
Chili is the large importer of used clothing and unwanted garments from Europe and the US. They are supposedly resold to users in the domestic markets and other Latin American countries. However, only 15% of those imported garments are resold or reused and the rest is illegally dumped in unauthorized landfills in the Atacama Desert, creating a huge mess. Also, since quite a lot of those garments are made of polyesters, it’ll take hundreds of years to disintegrate. It threatens the desert’s unique biodiversity and the health of inhabitants around the desert.
Is this part of the supply chain?
Watch the video to learn about the fate of unwanted garments.
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