Abandoned clothing dumps across Chile's northern Atacama Desert are creating environmental problems that highlight the need for urgent environment protection. Chile is the largest importer of second-hand clothing in South America. And since 2023, local clothing studios have tried different means to turn discarded textiles into profit. CGTN's Cao Xuan reports from Chile's Atacama Desert.

CAO XUAN Atacama Desert, Chile "Part of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, one of the hottest, driest places on earth, is also a graveyard for fast fashion. As a result of a big fire in 2023, the piles of second-hand clothes that had previously accumulated in the desert were burnt. But smaller piles are now forming and becoming more dispersed throughout the desert, creating additional difficulties for those who come here to recycle used clothing."

The girl picking out clothes in the Atacama Desert is named Angela. She runs a private clothing studio in Iquique, a northern Chilean city. Angela redesigns and transforms discarded clothing into new styles.

ANGELA Chilean Studio Keeper "My main goal is to be able to help the environment and create a better future for my daughter instead of having her live in a dump. That's what drives me."

CAO XUAN Atacama Desert, Chile "We discovered that some of the clothes were from Europe and the United States. The labels on the clothes were priced in euros and dollars, which meant there were not only second-hand clothes here, but also clothes that had not been tagged-new clothes."

At the port of Iquique, containers full of discarded clothes are transported into Chile every day. 

Regardless of whether they are second-hand or new, about 39,000 tons of discarded clothing are dumped in the Atacama Desert each year, with many of them taking up to 200 years to biodegrade.

BARBARA PINO Director of the Fashion System Observatory, Chile "One of the huge challenge is understand how one is to separate the fibers, the materials to recycle or to convert that material in some other things."

Professor Barbara and her team believe that working on how to reuse recycled textiles is a critical way to tackle the problem. At the same time, some companies in Chile have already joined the recycling of waste clothing.

JAVIER AMAYA Co-founder of Cirkla, Chile "Cirkla is a company dedicated to textile recycling. The waste we process includes clothing or discarded textile materials."

Cirkla's products include textile thread, garments, blankets, rugs, and more. Recycling services range from $1 to $4 per kilogram, paid by the clothing company. The volume, which is currently at 14 tonnes of discarded clothing every month, continues to grow exponentially.

CAO XUAN Santiago "Although we visited the infamous clothing dump in the Atacama Desert at the beginning of the story, we also had the chance to speak to environmentalists as well as a recycling factory. It's clear they're working hard in the name of environmental protection, and the solutions proposed are twofold. First, the government needs to find ways to protect the environment. Second, people have to change their purchasing habits and ideas when it comes to recycling used clothes. The process is costly, not free. Cao Xuan, CGTN, Santiago, Chile."