Fashion blight Crackdown on clothing dumps in Atacama

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.

- John Bartlett

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.

Piles of garments stretch into the distance: consignments of nursing uniforms, shipments of shoes, bundles of work overalls and last season's fast-fashion discards.

But Chile's government has taken a decisive step towards addressing the environmental crisis that has beset the desert.

This week, the country's environment ministry announced it had added textiles as a "priority" category to its extended producer responsibility law, paving the way for importers to be made responsible for the waste produced by the thousands of tonnes of used clothing brought into Chile each year.