My recent post highlighted Ghana’s plight in waste colonialism related to the textile trade. This time we focus on Chile.Chile is Latin America’s biggest consumer of clothes and, in 2022, imported around 124,000 tonnes of second-hand textiles from across the world. In the same year, it was estimated that 300 hectares in northern Chile had been contaminated by textile waste.The world’s chronic overproduction of textiles and fast fashion culture are a big part of this story. So is the free-trade p

According to the UN, clothing production doubled from 2000 to 2015 and the world produces around 92 million tonnes of textile waste every year, 89% of which contains synthetic fibres. If we continue with our throwaway fast fashion culture, this situation will only get worse. Sub-Saharan Africa is a major destination for the Global North’s unwanted clothing, receiving 70% of the world’s donated clothing. Shockingly, some of these clothes arrive in Africa having been slashed to prevent reselling.G

TEXTILE LEXICON Social Media Toolkit  CONTEXT Almost 70% of global textile production is synthetic/plastic-based. Synthetic textile fibres are produced from fossil fuels, such as oil and natural gas. Like fossil fuels, synthetic textiles have severe environmental impacts across their lifecycl...