The Driest Desert in the World Covered in Clothing
At least 39,000 tons of abandoned clothing are covering the Chilean desert Atacama, the driest desert in the world. It will take 200 years for the discarded clothing to biodegrade. Read key points below.
- Around 59,000 tons of second-hand and unsold clothes arrive in Chile and then sellers try to resell them. Not everything gets sold. The ones that no one wants end up in a landfill.
- "The problem is that the clothing is not biodegradable and has chemical products, so it is not accepted in the municipal landfills," said Mr. Franklin Zepeda, the founder of EcoFibra, a company that makes insulation panels using discarded clothing.
- Clothing can take 200 years to biodegrade and is as toxic as discarded tires or plastics.
- Often people from the poorest communities will come and search for clothes that are overlooked and could still be sold. It’s not unusual for their children to help them or play in dumps. Which according to the latest reports on the toxicity of fast Fashion can be extremely dangerous.
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