The landscape of the Atacama Desert in Chile includes mountains of unworn clothing – cheap goods from Europe that have not found buyers. Retail expert Jörg Funder explains in an interview why fast fashion ends up there and what can be done about it. The professor heads the Institute for International Trade and Distribution Management at the University of Worms.
ntv.de: Why are new clothes from Germany, among others, piling up in the Chilean desert?
Jörg Funder: If you can’t get rid of goods in this country, you like to sell them in South America because it’s summer there, when it’s winter here and vice versa. So you can try to sell goods there as soon as possible. So-called secondary recyclers buy the goods in industrialized countries in order to then market them in third countries. That is too much produced clothing that could not be sold or from branch closings. Whatever the secondary recyclers can no longer get rid of, they dispose of. However, because the amount is so large that the disposal companies cannot keep up with recycling, the goods are temporarily stored in the desert.
Some of the clothing also comes directly from manufacturers, especially in the luxury segment: If you do not want to have high-quality brands resold in order to avoid a negative effect on the brand image, manufacturers like to dispose of the goods directly.
So the mountains of rubbish don’t just consist of fast fashion?
It goes across the board, but the majority comes from the fast fashion sector. Because this is so cheap that it often cannot be used again – because it has no brand label and is so trendy that it is no longer bought two months later.
Why is the clothing not donated instead, or at least disposed of in Europe?
Disposal in Europe is comparatively expensive, a ton costs around 200 euros for incineration. The cheapest way is to still sell the goods in South America. Even if disposal there were just as expensive, transport would still be worthwhile. After all, only the rest that is no longer sold there has to be disposed of.
In Germany, for example, it is not worth giving away for tax reasons, because the German state assumes that nobody has anything to give away. Even when giving away, a fictitious price is assumed, which is charged with VAT. These costs are often higher than disposing of the goods.
Where in the world do such “fashion mountains” arise and what quantities are we talking about?
The largest such interim storage facility is in the Chilean desert. 50,000 tons of clothing arrive in Chile every year, of which only about 11,000 tons can be resold, 39,000 tons end up in this desert – every year. Disposal takes place in low-wage countries, Chile focuses on textiles, Indonesia, for example, on plastic. The countries are looking for niches here, which is why this mountain primarily grows in Chile, not around the globe.
What happens to the clothes after they are temporarily stored in the desert?
Some of it is recycled, for example into insulation boards or materials. The majority that ends up there is not made of high-quality basic material, but plastics that develop toxins when burned. That is why some of them are not allowed to be incinerated in South America; almost all that remains is to use them in insulation or packaging materials. In Germany, most of the waste disposal is incinerated, but we have filter systems that filter out toxins.
How does storage in the desert pollute the environment?
Fortunately, that’s not a big problem. The goods do not rot because they are usually not natural products. That is why the toxins are actually only created when they are burned.
Does the mountain of clothes trigger social problems?
At least that is not known to me, the desert is not populated.
Is the corona crisis also causing the mountain in Chile to grow because consumers are buying less clothes?
I do not think so. Because providers who offer everything from a single source – from design to production to sales – can adapt to demand. In addition, it is mainly about fast fashion, i.e. not typical work clothes that are currently less bought, but lifestyle products with a short half-life. Shein from China, for example, produces very cheaply, a sweater costs less than 6 euros, a pair of jeans less than 20 euros. The buyers are mainly young people who sometimes wear the pieces once or twice and sometimes don’t even wash them before sorting them out again. That was a big topic even before Corona.
As a consumer, what can I do about it?
It is best to shop consciously: Do I need this item of clothing, how often will I wear it, what does it go with? Almost 40 percent of our clothes are unworn in the closet. So we should consume more consciously and wear clothes more often. This is of course difficult because textiles often serve to produce a certain image of oneself or others, to express a lifestyle. If someone wants to dress fashionably, it involves a certain amount of change.
You can also pay attention to sustainable production. Brands like Benetton already excelled with it in the 1990s. However, it is incredibly difficult to see through for the consumer because the supply chains are very ramified. Textiles are often produced in Asia, even by expensive brands. Honestly, only brand trust helps – but unfortunately this is not always appropriate in the end.
The calculation “expensive equals fair” doesn’t work, does it?
Not necessarily, no.
What could German politics do against the mountain of rubbish in Chile?
Actually nothing.
Not ensuring cheaper disposal in this country?
That is what the waste disposal companies determine. At most, one could make it possible to give away goods, apparently this is also part of the coalition agreement of the designated governing parties. Still, individual manufacturers would not want that in order not to damage their brands by giving them away. Especially in the textile segment, where a lot is about brands, German politics can do little, I guess.
So, above all, are the manufacturers responsible?
Yes, and ultimately the consumer.
Where does the unsold new goods from Europe that are not resold to South America end up?
In Germany it is mainly burned. That depends a lot on the textiles: You can often process natural materials further, for example into insulating materials or cleaning rags. This is also practiced in this country, for example, via the used clothing containers. However, it is less and less worthwhile for the disposal companies to sort the goods. Because there are now so many goods on the market that the yield for used clothes has become very low. That is why the clothes are more and more often unsorted to be incinerated or to Chile. In the industrialized countries fewer and fewer waste disposal companies can survive, which is why there are fewer and fewer used clothing containers. The disposal of old clothes is a big problem.
Christina Lohner spoke to Jörg Funder