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Out of fashion in the desert - 18th February 2021

This is Chile's Atacama Desert. There are millions of tonnes of unwanted clothes here. They're bad for the environment.

Unwanted clothes arrive in Chile from Asia, Europe and the US. Businesspeople sell some of the clothes in South America.

But 39,000 tonnes of clothes go to the desert every year. Many of them are synthetic. The clothes will be there for 200 years.

The government's worried about fires.

Moyra Rojas: "These small scale rubbish dumps generate some fire incidents, which obviously produce air pollution. And some are also located near populated areas."

Now, people are using the clothes in different ways. Franklin Zepeda's company, EcoFibra, makes construction materials with the clothes.

Franklin Zepeda: "The waste is what used to go to the desert rubbish dump and now we are using it as a raw material to make our thermal insulation panels."

Production of clothes is a big problem. It increased 100 percent from 2000 to 2014.

Now, 20 percent of all water use is for clothes production. It makes 8 percent of air pollution every year too.

Ecocitex recycles clothes. Rosario Hevia manages the company. She thinks education will help.

Rosario Hevia: "The main solution to eliminating textile waste in Chile is to educate people about reducing their consumption of unnecessary textiles, and to take charge of extending the lifespan of it - the clothing."

Poor people visit the desert's clothes mountains. They look for clothes for their families.