Piles of discarded clothing are accumulating in Chile's Atacama Desert, highlighting the global pollution from fast fashion. The industry produces 170 billion garments annually, with half discarded within a year, contributing 10 percent of planet-warming emissions. This system, accelerated by trade changes, harms water, air, and land across supply chains.
In Chile's Atacama Desert, one of the driest places on Earth, used clothing imports have formed massive mounds since 2001. The largest, weighing 100,000 tons by 2022, was burned, releasing toxic smoke into nearby towns. These dumps stem from the duty-free port of Iquique, which receives secondhand garments from the United States, Europe, and Asia. While some are resold, most fast-fashion items are abandoned, ignored by the government despite activist lawsuits.
The fashion industry's woes trace back to production. Synthetic fibers, now 70 percent of textiles, derive from petroleum; making polyester emits carbon equivalent to 180 coal plants yearly. Cotton, used in jeans and T-shirts, demands 500 gallons of irrigation water plus 1,500 gallons of rainwater per outfit and consumes 16 percent of global insecticides. Dyeing processes pollute 20 percent of the world's water with 72 toxic chemicals, including heavy metals, devastating rivers like Indonesia's Citarum, where factory waste has caused health issues such as skin rashes and tumors.
Trade policies worsened the crisis. The Multi Fibre Arrangement's end in 2005 flooded markets with cheap imports from China and Bangladesh. The 2016 de minimis loophole expansion boosted ultra-fast brands like Shein, which releases 10,000 items daily via carbon-intensive air shipping, emitting 16 million metric tons of CO2 in 2023. Overproduction leads to 8 to 60 billion surplus garments yearly, much landfilled or incinerated.
Even worn items harm: fast-fashion jeans are used seven times on average, shedding microplastics—500,000 metric tons enter oceans annually. The U.S., the top apparel consumer, exports the most waste, per Rachel Kibbe of American Circular Textiles. Efforts like California's 2024 textile recycling law and EU bans on destroying unsold goods aim to promote circularity, but challenges persist with blended fabrics and bankrupt recyclers like Renewcell. As designer Lynda Grose notes, the entire industry adopts fast-fashion tactics, requiring broader regulations to curb waste.
