Mountain of clothing trash weighing more than 39,000 tons seen from space

Chile's giant 'fast fashion' clothing dump in the Atacama Desert is so big it can be seen by satellites.

Satellite images show a giant mountain of clothing trash in the Atacama Desert, northern Chile. Photo: Skyfi

The Atacama Desert in Chile is home to a growing clothing graveyard. These are discarded or unworn garments, mostly manufactured in Bangladesh or China, shipped to retailers in the US, Europe, and Asia, and then brought to Chile when they don't sell, Business Insider reported on May 23.

At least 39,000 tonnes of such clothes have accumulated in the Atacama Desert in 2021, according to AFP. They are mostly “fast fashion” – cheap clothes produced quickly to follow the latest trends.

SkyFi, a satellite photo and video app developer, shared a high-resolution satellite image of the clothing cemetery on May 11. "The image is 50cm in resolution, rated Very High Definition, and was taken by satellite. It shows how large the trash mountain is compared to the city below," SkyFi wrote.

These clothes don't go to municipal landfills because they're not biodegradable and often contain chemical products, according to Franklin Zepeda, founder of EcoFibra, a company that tries to reuse clothes by making insulation panels.

The mountain of unwanted clothing is located near the port of Iquique, about a mile from some of the city’s poorer neighborhoods. The dump sometimes attracts migrants and local women who come looking for things they can wear or sell.

Fast fashion contributes 2% to 8% of the world's carbon emissions, the United Nations said in 2018. According to a 2019 Insider article, nearly 85% of clothing is thrown away every year, and fashion production uses up huge amounts of water and pollutes streams. The U.K.'s Ellen McArthur Foundation estimates that about a garbage truck of clothing is burned and sent to landfill every second.

Thu Thao (According to Business Insider )

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