The fast fashion graveyard in Chile's Atacama Desert - BBC News

The second-hand clothing trade is a well-established business in Chile.

Traders import unwanted garments – mainly from Europe and the US - to resell locally and to other Latin American nations.

But more than half of the 60,000 tonnes of clothes imported each year ends up in illegal desert landfills, with dire consequences for the environment and the local community.

#Chile #BBCNews

[DV-zvox]

Just another reason why I love op-shopping and wearing clothes until they develop holes. Fast fashion is toxic and destructive, in so many ways.

[yizhakshachar]

A lot of possible uses for those clothes.

1. Filling for packages and fragile things instead of Styrofoam.
2. Filling for large children's dolls.
3. Filling for mattresses, and if not comfortable for sleeping then at least for play mattresses that kids jump on them or fall mattresses in sports classes.
4. Reusable bags can be sewn from them, instead of plastic bags that are given to us in stores.
5. From small cloth sheets it is possible to sew work gloves.
6. In many clothes you can make small repairs and sell them as second-hand clothes.

[zhu]

This is when WANT far exceeds NEED. Why does it happen?

Greed.

[CactusCowboyDan]

I've never been one for fashion or clothes shopping. In fact, I haven't bought any new clothes in years apart from replacing socks.

This shows me that its more important then ever to not get drawn into the crazy fashion sense that people waste money and resources over.

Your clothes are just a shell around your body, nothing more.

[rayshelld]

I grew up in the 40s and 50s. My generation is really in shock seeing these dumps. If we bought a dress, we wore that dress until it was outgrown, then it would be handed down to a sister or a cousin, by that time it was pretty thread bare, and the dress would be taken apart and rags would be made out of it. But then before the rags got too stained, grandma or an aunt would cut small squares of the fabric that wasn't too thread bare, and make quilts out of it. So ya.., , we reused and repurposed fabrics.. the prettiest skirt I ever owned was made from one of my mothers old dresses.

[spacecat]

Never been a fan of fast fashion (or any fashion, to be honest) and throwaway culture we have (I’m in the UK and other areas). A lot of people here and some other places have this “If I can’t see it, it’s not there” attitude. Charity shops (and thrift stores) can only do so much. We need to reduce this waste now somehow.

[imtiazdar]

*Call the factory owners to clean their mess, they're destroying the nature of the planet.* 💔

[MissylovesTrouble]

People are outraged, why? What do you think stores do? In America, they toss everything that doesn't sell (which is a lot) into the trash compactor. Then it get picked up and taken to the dump. I think everyone should take a trip to their local trash dump, so they can see for themselves of what gets thrown away.

[glutenfreegamr]

I can PROUDLY say that NONE of my clothes have ever ended up in a landfill.
Also, I buy 100% cotton clothes whenever possible.

[ThomasKO]

When I see that, I see all the resources, work, time and pollution (which happens on so many different ways, while producing clothes). To see such a thing is painful. I really am going to use this video for my students in class... Hopefully, the ones are in fast fashion will think about their "lifestyle" the others, I hope, they won't fall into it!

[gregmoore]

10-20 years ago a t-shirt would last me 10-20 years, everything I buy now falls apart within 2 years!

[tomaspizarro-escuti]

As someone from Chile I must say that the authorities are to blame. Chile is not a corrupt banana republic. Of course big corporations are also to blame, but the Chilean government has enough agency to prevent this from happening.

[TashaBryanRENegade]

What the actual fudge!
That's horrific. Why is it being dumped there?
Bout time they ship it back to the entitled countries who are happy for this to exist.

[paulafranciscac]

A year ago after becoming aware of this problem I stopped buying new clothes, with the exception of socks, shoes and undergarments. No more trips to the mall. I buy everything in thrift shops. It is more fun. I have learned (thanks to you tube) to remove
certain stains of garments and how to hem or do simple repairs! So much more satisfying. Stores like Zara, forever 21, and H& M should be held responsable for these problems. Slave labor, fabrics that rip, fade or shrink because of the awful quality... bad bad bad!

[Kltpzyxm]

Need to build a recycle plant to turn it all into new clothes that people WANT, and not throw away.

[alastairbrewster]

Greetings from Peru, for many generations the people of Peru and Chile have been rivals, why ? Our common enemy is big business, corporations and imperialist attitudes. Hope for the future that these two nations can find common ground and work together.

[moonstonejan]

This is sometimes the problem with people with lots of money (even the not so rich people) just dump everything they want to dump once they find it old, and not even checking if a clothing is still useful to other people or not. If it cannot be used by other people, I suggest to recycle or reuse a cloth in a creative way. Yeah lets admit many people don't have time for this or do not want to spend time thinking how to recycle.

[pinkelephants]

When there are so many people on Earth, especially refugees, who are struggling to be properly shod & clothed due circumstances beyond their control, the situation we're witnessing in this video is scandalous in addition to the pollution and environmental degradation.

[conradcodfish]

They should net it all and create huge oil spill emergency kits, that can be lifted and dropped into huge oil spills as an absorbant, then from the used net sponges spills sell them to powerstations as fuel. Turn it into x3 profit.

[zero_bs_tolerance]

No wonder Mother Nature is trying to rid herself of humans.