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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
John Bartlett in Santiago

Chile targets fast fashion waste with landmark desert cleanup plan

a women on top of a pile of clothes
Lawyer Paulina Silva inspects a clandestine rubbish dump in the La Pampa sector of Alto Hospicio, about 10km east of Iquique, Chile, on 11 November 2022. Photograph: Martin Bernetti/AFP/Getty Images

In a dusty corner of the Atacama Desert, the driest non-polar region on Earth, mounds of used clothes are scattered across the sand, where they sit, bleached and tattered, under the sun.

As the sea mist drifts over a high coastal plateau above the city of Iquique in Chile’s far north, the breeze rustles plastic bags bursting with second-hand clothing.

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