High Hospice – Every few years, when a lot of rain falls, the driest place in the world turns into a blue-violet sea of colors. The splotches of color that now run through the Atacama Desert in northern Chile at Alto Hospicio are not fragrant flowers, but used clothes. Thousands of pants, T-shirts and sweaters are piled up and form mountains themselves, spoiling the hilly landscape.
Chile is one of the largest importers of used clothing in Latin America. In the nearby free trade zone of Iquique, 29,178 tons of used clothing arrived by October this year, according to the managing director of the association of local entrepreneurs, Darío Blanco.
Tons of old clothes spoil the natural paradise
The goods are unloaded in bales at the port. About 50 importers sell the best pieces from it, the others – an estimated 40 percent – sort them out. “This clothing is disposed of in the mountains of our community,” says Alto Hospicio’s environmental officer, Edgar Ortega. Up to 20 tons of old clothes end up in this unique natural paradise every day, something that has been going on for years.
The biggest challenge for the fashion industry is the amount of waste that is generated by fast fashion, according to a statement from the environmental protection organization Greenpeace. The residents of Alto Hospicio see themselves as the end of a chain that produces in China, consumes in Europe or the USA and dumps in Chile.
AP/Matias Delacroix
Disposed in the desert sand: unloaded items of clothing spoil nature in Alto Hospicio.
According to Ortega, the city is financially and personally barely able to prevent the unloading, let alone clear up the landfill. Just five inspectors would try to catch those who dump their old clothes in the desert. “The problem arises much earlier,” says Ortega. Because clothing from other countries is not declared as textile waste, it is not clear how the sorted out imported goods should be disposed of. “As long as that is not resolved, we will not change the situation.”
It hurts Camila Palma when clothes are said to be rubbish. Palma is the owner of one of the many second-hand shops in the capital Santiago de Chile. Because there is fierce competition, many shops have specialized – “Angora Vintage” in the charming, European-influenced Paris-Londres district in the city center primarily focuses on fashion from the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Owner Palma raves about clothes “Made in Germany” on the phone. She says: “There is very good quality, good fibers, good fabrics; I like how a piece of clothing is made. ”Palma knows what she’s talking about: the 35-year-old studied fashion design. “Angora Vintage” does not buy bales either, rather the pieces are selected individually at markets and trade fairs.
AFP/Martin Bernetti
Circular economy: In the factories of Ecofibra in Alto Hospicio and Ecotex in Santiago, ecological raw materials such as yarn or insulation material are made from textile waste.
“Now there is a lot of plastic in clothing, that’s the problem,” says Palma. She prefers to choose old items made from 100 percent cotton so that a garment doesn’t pollute the environment every time it is washed. “This is very important to have a sustainable store.” According to Greenpeace, a single piece of polyester can release up to a million microplastic fibers during one wash.
At Alto Hospicio, if clothing is set on fire to make room, the environment is also polluted. “It’s usually one big fire every year,” says environmental officer Edgar Ortega. The fire brigade tried to extinguish it with water, but the fire continued to smolder for days.
All of this may not really fit in with Chile, which is progressive in many ways in Latin America, has said goodbye to plastic bags in shops, for example, or has a recycling law modeled on Europe. It obliges companies to take care of the rubbish they generate. In Alto Hospicio, for example, a working group was set up with the Ministry of the Environment to include used clothing in this law.
In addition to a legal obligation, Blanco appeals to importers to take corporate responsibility for the waste problem. “We will look for the formula to recycle the discarded clothing.”
The company Ecofibra in Alto Hospicio is already making insulation material from old clothes. So far it can process three tons a day. Blanco envisions the importers, for example, to provide more machines for Ecofibra or to look for alternatives. “One thing is clear: you have to take care of what is left over, you can’t just throw it away.”
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