Need some clothes? Pyramids of unworn clothes are being heaped up in Chile desert
How often to you shop for clothes?
Buying nice clothes for yourself and wanting to look good is not a crime. In fact, we love that you are taking time to treat yourself, we believe that when you look good, you feel good. Let's call it a fact of life...
But the thing about fashion is that many of us don't know where the unwanted clothes go to die. A while back we found out that the majority of fashion has a negative impact on the environment and is not biodegradable.
Well, if you were wondering, we have found out where clothes go to 'rest in peace'. According to Business Insider, around 59,000 tons of clothing ends up at the port in Chile every year. Of that amount, 39,000 tons are moved into landfills in the desert.
Where do these clothes come from? "Garments are made in China and Bangladesh and make their way to stores in the US, Europe, and Asia. When the garments are not purchased, they are brought to Chile's Iquique port to be re-sold to other Latin American countries." (Business Insider)
When they do not sell, then they end up piling up in the desert, waiting to be disposed of.
The problem is that the clothing is not biodegradable and has chemical products, so it is not accepted in the municipal landfills.
As South Africans, we don't actually get to see where the unused clothes go, but what we do know is that we are part of a culture that recycles and repurposes our clothing. We know many people that donate their clothes instead of disposing of them, but what fashion outlets do, we are not certain.
We know that there are many factory outlets in our country that host those clothes that don't make the cut when it comes to getting on the shelf at clothing outlets. And that repurposing and recycling is a much better option than disposing of clothing that affects the environment.
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"Fast fashion, while affordable, is extremely harmful to the environment. The fashion industry accounts for 8 to 10% of the world's carbon emissions, per the UN. In 2018, the fashion industry was also found to consume more energy than the aviation and shipping industries combined. Researchers estimate that the equivalent of a garbage truck of clothes is burned and sent to a landfill every second." (Business Insider)
Those statistics are scary! Can you imagine the industry that creates our clothing, uses more energy than the industries that make planes and ships. Talk about shocking...
The good news is that EcoFibra is a company that is trying to make use of the discarded clothing by making insulation panels out of them.
On that note, we were eager to know, what type of clothing shopper are you?
Image Courtesy of Unsplash Website