Images from the Atacama desert, which has become a dumpster for the global fast fashion industry. Over 100,000 tons of clothing, many of them new items with price tags that weren't sold or used, have been dumped in the Atacama desert in Chile.
“ Chile has long been a hub of second-hand and unsold clothing, made in China or Bangladesh and passing through Europe, Asia or the United States before arriving in Chile, where it is resold around Latin America. … Clothing merchants from the capital Santiago, 1,800km (1,100 miles) to the south, buy some, while much is smuggled out to other Latin American countries. But at least 39,000 tonnes that cannot be sold end up in rubbish dumps in the desert. “
Others have pointed out some interesting reasons why donating clothes to Africa also causes problems: link
Most of the clothes are resold for lucrative profit and not donated for free. It disguises another profitable business of exporting garbage - whatever is not resold is again dumped as trash. It creates dependency and breaks the local African clothing industry.
nomadofwaves on January 8th, 2022 at 01:11 UTC »
Images from the Atacama desert, which has become a dumpster for the global fast fashion industry. Over 100,000 tons of clothing, many of them new items with price tags that weren't sold or used, have been dumped in the Atacama desert in Chile.
https://twitter.com/peoplesdispatch/status/1478773537758351364?s=21
ariphron on January 8th, 2022 at 01:15 UTC »
Why? Just a contract with the government to take the worlds trashed clothing?
_Beee on January 8th, 2022 at 02:30 UTC »
Here is what I found from google: link
“ Chile has long been a hub of second-hand and unsold clothing, made in China or Bangladesh and passing through Europe, Asia or the United States before arriving in Chile, where it is resold around Latin America. … Clothing merchants from the capital Santiago, 1,800km (1,100 miles) to the south, buy some, while much is smuggled out to other Latin American countries. But at least 39,000 tonnes that cannot be sold end up in rubbish dumps in the desert. “
Edit:
An interesting video shared in the comments https://youtu.be/wAPidXqvNLk
Others have pointed out some interesting reasons why donating clothes to Africa also causes problems: link
Most of the clothes are resold for lucrative profit and not donated for free. It disguises another profitable business of exporting garbage - whatever is not resold is again dumped as trash. It creates dependency and breaks the local African clothing industry.