close on next. on d w. sometimes books are more exciting than real life. raring to read. oh, but what if there's no escape? do w literature list. 100 german ma, street east of chillies, pacific coast. a shocking sight. a dumping ground for used clothing, tons and tons. much of it comes from europe. musicians this bag definitely comes from germany watched on this desert. dumping

ground tells an ugly truth about fast fashion. with fema, we're producing more clothing and throwing it away, faster. a lucrative business for some people with it has economic benefits for people who work here and for investors. scott, industry to south america has become a dumping ground with it. but what you throw away is what we went by sorta why has the gum and production industry gone so badly? rome and who is paying the real price of fast fashion?

i'll search for answers takes us to south america with we're in the at a come a desert in northern sheila where some of the global fashion industries, discarded clothing ends up. locals are taking us to a dumpsite, past settlements of make shift hunts. we drive past piles of used tie as then clothing, heaps and heaps of it a vast landfill site for textiles in the middle of the desert. the stench of chemical vapors hangs in the air. freddy is

a local man. he's outraged by these mountains of discounted clothes you know, with that he would fail. it is of the market now in the summer. there are a lot of fires. florida where the textiles are highly flammable. days of fire starts by itself and everything goes up in flames. a robot equal means out of it. but for some families, the landfill is a source of income. you an eob, if vehicle can laurel people come here to find clothes for themselves or to show it secondhand markets in town would have been already on the end of the program. there's no one here at the moment because there is just been a fire or we don't. we don't jennifer jennifer in the role by a graveyard for used and unsold fast fashion.

manuel olivo is in charge here, though. she picks up surplus textiles in town, and transport them to the dump, the yoke of unilateral by the door or by you say, bit of it. no, it's not a robot. the clothing comes from all over the world. because sometimes i go and collected from local shops, asada to say, oh no, but i go to the warehouse is a local phone. i asked if they have any steps they can give me. and so say, if they do i rent a truck and bring it all here for. can also park on my for lady isla bry. la la rober. any one who wants to take her clothes has to pay her? i'm benya. you know me up where level kim, this is daniel young pacific. when i started doing this a long time ago, i called them back then it was in may your, in my home town for the 1st time in premier and more and more people settled here that was about 8 or even 12 years ago or short. dorothy, no,

san you mothers, us, an you, manuela and her husband live in a ramshackle hot surrounded by mountains of used textiles. there is no electricity or running water. it, i'm a ranked if i'm electrically at work. at one point there were 20 families living here. if, if what some of them left and stopped working with help grow dark under land, better not across the way could have been from them. recently. tv cruise from around the world had come to report on the clothes dumping ground. manuel olivas tells them about her plight. she lives off a poultry state pension, the equivalent of just $115.00 euros a month. her husband is sick, they're all alone. so moving can we? we are hot outside town. you know law leaves no that no one will see what they're up to. so they come here and robert slam on in the urine for him. they've taken my rabbits, my ducks and pigs, even my birds are huddled around for your mother. bravo. oh,

the couple still have a few animals left, but they live in constant fear of being robbed again. they are not in compassion. they no, no, no one takes pity on us. all that i keep chickens and ducks at least, and here and there i grow some plants, grey. oh, you didn't wanna see him, bro, yahoo! the money they make from recycling clothes is much needed. beg of me, is it for this? oh yes it, as they struggle to make ends meet, rejected clothing produced in china and bungler dash and sold in the us and europe continues to pile up around them. the sun on the town of alto species is covered in a thin film of sand. 40 years ago there was nothing but desert here, the establishment of a free trade zone, kickstart at the local economy,

and created new problems. it got ortega from the local environment office explains that the government did law here in alto hospice. here we are dealing with a most acute environmental problems in the whole region. i get them when i see it in the desert surrounding the town. every one does whatever they want to know. why silicon i get a he knows exactly who to blame for the landfill sites in while of the used clothing business is highly lucrative for importers of secondhand textiles and a key case free trade zone and e, g, a sort of at the moment, there are 53 of these companies and they're, they're all by the end robot. and their business model is very profitable and going on while any let only for them. but this is also, it's detrimental to the wider community that the one over one hour we had to ye, kiki, the provincial capital is sandwiched between the desert and the pacific. this

used to be a depressed region, then the free trade zone. so freak was created and a container port was built. companies operating here enjoy various tax exemptions. dario blanco, head of the key k free trade zone uses association kohls the soft, re a roaring success in economic terms, at least had put up a fella from a franca. m come one of the free trade. joan was a political project. it meant that a lot of people from elsewhere settled here, not in the arid desert region when people who are in a future frequently created economic advantages for people who move t k for work as well as for investors will. i'm been a chunk life, a lesson, yet. importers of discarded and unsold clothes, also benefit from tax exemptions. we come across american brands as well as governments that a clearly from germany,

dealers distinguish between 3 categories. yeah, and for the fit i am oh, the worst category is clothes with stains or homes in grow that go white. we does garden, i and if it goes to like, let me be within an estimated 40 percent of what's imported ends up thrown out when they come with it varies from container to container anyway. sometimes the contents are in good condition with others. we have to throw out a lot of sub standard items. sheila is latin, america's main importer of discarded clothing, importing tens of thousands of tons per year. some of it comes from germany. we see one stool that advertises clothes from hamburg. neighboring countries restrict or forbid the import of used clothes. not sheila,

which has become an international dumping ground back at the landfill. freddie and i are figuring out where the clothes come from. we find a pair of trousers from the dominican republic. yes. good. how many gonna add? well, me and then i fine text. aust. grandpa from germany. yep. pot the purpose management when i'm president, did a tele rejected clothing dumped in the at a comma? does it get repeated signed out by dot d, obviously stuff from germany is ending up. he had arch front wheel. so find video, cuz since a german phone book and a pair of socks with a price tag in euro's, ah, i pam few women for you is i know it to kit for this. still a label on the socks in germany yesterday. proffer, it says good sort of a men with cotton and the last inland last time. so brand new items are ending up

here to hire or dr. london, althea is moved back. ah, an industry operating at the expense of the environment. this vast dumping ground is one consequence. according to united nation statistics, clothing production has doubled since the year 2000. it's an industry that consumes vast quantities of water working conditions, a notoriously bad fires in textile factories, a commonplace one of the worst tragedies occurred in bangladesh in 2013 the rom, plaza. garmen factory collapse claimed over 1100 lives

a wakeup call for the fashion industry. but according to brazilian activist, fernandez seamen, nothing much has changed. my concept there's one applies in the collapse of ron applies as many did not even know their manufacturing was done. there. he'll tell us is probably the single no fernando seaman doesn't see any shift in the way big brands do business. seeing systemic jamal. that's wow. the current system encourages companies to produce close, faster, and faster will happy though. e kind of exhaust them. they're worn for shorter and shorter amounts of time was either madness. eh, so close, wind up in the garbage sooner. carbon sang the, shall gather myself to day. and usually end up shipped overseas, where this sorted through by people in need in alto space,

you manuel olivo runs things your ban ds. if so, if at all i get money from people who come here looking for clothes, well either for themselves or to sell it, that's my livelihood yet. gone. if up that the yoko bell i'm most to refugees from venezuela. when i e, n. m o, from looking for something to wear him more. forget it. i lost all my clothes clean to chilly, daddy more she learned of what i got. the venezuelan refugees, a usually penniless. we see lots of them here crossing the desert. in the daytime, the sun beats down, and at night it's bitterly cold. here on the border to bolivia, refugees have erected makeshift huts in the last 2 years. hundreds of venezuelans

have been arriving here every day. a ditch and armed border patrol gods and no deterrence. the desert border is nearly impossible to control the one with the official o'clock we want to get to the coast. okay. yeah. we've been waiting 7 days to be taken there. you know, the, i don't, the authorities promised donald reel her breath while montela parked on the family most have travelled for months. they sleep here that william, it's a makeshift as i'll come in. as i love the given with his one room where he is the other the the refugees make do driven by hope of a better life in chile. and well, this is where we cook them. water yang, it isn't. i don't want to know it. i well, i hope i can find work. i don't know,

it's impossible in venezuela or kiddos that you have nothing to eat, then yolanda began matter for me. but here i can earn money and support my family back hockey plan. what i, what we see many families with children, they've left everything behind, pinning their hopes on a new home in chile. sometimes locals give them something to eat more often they're met with hostility without on look at the hockey set up a little only a lot of people just shut the door in our faces. well, normally uncle, me, they won't give us anything to eat or mean not even for the children to know them. they yell at us, tell us to go home, but i can get no, no, no, i remember what not to play. further on, we see a family by the side of the road. they are clearly exhausted.

despite the scorching midday sun, they want to keep going until they reach a key cake, some 200 kilometers away. a long trip through the desert with a 2 year old and a 5 month old baby. unless i start got an adult minim leafy. it's very hot weather. oh yeah. it took us 4 days to get here from the border. miranda need to get. we're not making much progress. went along with but we haven't lost her. why you they can't enter this village. assign warns of pitbulls with william by more loud, i nodded on, some locals, offered us water that was contaminated with urine as own of our data. why would you do that? let me know what i mean. so disrespectful. are demoting allowed? the law was was ja sheila isn't giving them the welcome night. hopeful

they treated like parias any key k refugees live in abject conditions. many have settled near the clothing dump where the clothes i find they when when i started on the did go at that thought my 2 children and i fled through the desert and let me close it. we had to leave behind the suitcase with our clothes that were we wouldn't have made it. we had to, i just want, but i wonder, i've used up all my savings galaxy in florida. it was so cold in the andes as a boy mila door at night. i covered with the children to keep warm young gardening . in the 2nd hand, marketing until was busio, the venezuelan refugees can buy t shirts, jeans, and switches, or sell used clothes themselves. anything that's halfway decent he sold

you. i can't log in with in a way when a legal silva for poor people especially. and this is a place to buy and sell cheap clothes ugly fema bonia. again. t shirts convinced cheapest 10 euro cents. didn't we both have bertha record? any one without a job is a vice. they're close here. you know, dna. till they there are whole fellow of these clue, a europe's garbage. like it was a can tilly. what arrives in chile is officially clothing. the 2nd wardrobe, they don't look at the countries in europe, it's garbage and does it, but i me, what do you throw away is what we, where we're at it. i opened my legal unfortunately july in law makes those possible . it not. and they all in

2000 kilometers away in south paolo, brazil. this is the heart of the south american textiles industry. the bomb had chiro district is a hub to clothe, stores and textile factories. it's also home to many of you level fi industries left over cellular ban of thoughts on every day. at 5 in the afternoon, pedro de silva picks up whatever has been thrown away. oh, it's a lot. bags and bags and surplus textiles. i thought i had dogs, it is quite old on the left. this is how much is left over from production every day. it's all surplus, but we can use it never. it's in good condition and can all be recycled? elaina, it won't say fuck was about one 5th of the fabrics used in production, ends up in the trash talk shop why

pedro gets annoyed when fabrics are thrown out along with normal household garbage, then the bags are worthless for them. okay. with me thought i didn't quite fit. we can't recycle textiles that have been in a bag with the trash. they get dirty lease up and then they're no good. only a garden, what with don't lot of people that yeah, the people in the textiles, factories just don't understand. open soccer methods to somebody that we met that did you rober instead of filling one bag with garbage and fabric scraps me that they could use 2 bags and separate the waste of a saw holly middle a good you or it's not hard. i that yeah, go sat like, i'm with you, but it was a couple other in san palos, 63 tons of fabrics grants are thrown away every day. a growing number of waste

collectors had started specializing in clothing waste. laura is one of them for her . it was a way out, the work helped her beat a crack addiction. today she's clean and belongs to a fabric recycling network. residency, help me if i got textile factories, could join forces and transport their fabric waste to the suburbs where lots of small selling shops could really use it, but they refused till he's no at that jigger sonata. instead, many former homeless people like laura collect the fabric scraps and bring them to maria alina hillson back store in la hilalem. i am, i am 11 on the home. back here. the factories left overs piled up to the ceiling. 3 rooms, fully boxes and sacks. ascii not thought and

be like you look at all this bent the keel. i lecoq with our bodies. becky: so this is what the collectors have brought here. eyes brimming. compet ideally he saw is more coming. oh, i'll mentor. sure. and all the time it is all men. maria alina runs a charity project. she and her volunteer seamstresses, turn the scrap material into rock, sex, yackino me now. so it all started a few years ago. so me, when i realized how many backpacks i own, want the sale sync or ca said, i was always buying new ones and throwing them out. i me very right day and you got my yeah, that's when i had the idea to manufacture backpacks from fabric scrap, say a fuzzy machine. they produced $250.00 rucksacks a month from fabric that would otherwise end up in the trash. ya,

yoko may say acrobat. i started paying the garbage collectors, money for the scraps me. well, violet, i explained that a neat, clean fabrics, garcia brock, i yak, they've been bringing me tons of leftovers ever since. won't billing a sima do me? maria manufactures and markets built bags and backpacks without any help from the government, yankee, she wants her project to show that sustainability can be profitable. that there is an alternative to disposable fast fashion. i. i specialize in a compromise will not bear. nowadays, people are always buying clothes, they don't need to ga joseph. i'm off. they just want to make an impression impossible, but i don't. but you're worth as a person has nothing to do with luxury clothing. hello. you've all, all the settlement on a pan. it's about what's on the inside all set. we'll follow the settlement,

the standard key early head pleasant. sustainability is key for the fabrics bank in another part of south paolo. a new delivery has just arrived. leftovers from a factory. any one who drops off waste fabric can exchange it for other fabric. first, it gets weighed by founder lou greno. if i so, so for see them. every one can drop off fabric and keyless with this, if you give us 10 kilos, q you get 7 kilos. in return pills give us applies to look up a call care of the for see the dollars the fabric bank keeps 30 percent and uses it to make new products. said of any such of us item as mice, initiatives like ours are good factors, but they're only small steps. ankle, they won't make the fashion industry sustainable. urge billy light more needs to

change. for my car, they kick this is a g weakness for myself. true sustainability would have to start with cotton. brazil is one of the largest produces worldwide. but most cotton grown here is genetically modified and heavily treated with pesticides. sanchez up in the someone on the west faith edge money that's just not sustainable. hey, i'm gonna go assume its own so the cotton is ground and nana cultures would and wouldn't be possible without agra thompson out. or did you face suspicious? see, doesn't i'm going to talks activist fin and a seaman says the industry need to reboot it. that m a z, but on the z, hope us decision think we need to in, for a circular economy when it comes to close production processes. and think about how used clothing can be recycled on an industrial scale as a composite, as, as hopeless. eat on. single market, is it

a key for the fashion industry to become more sustainable? get on to for how many to move away from throw away society as cfo, my sustain coghlan, i'm either ah, a concept that hasn't made its way to a key key back in chile chia, no one has been able to tackle the garbage problem. several illegal garbage dumps and lisa to mount the at a comma. does it this one is the size of $25.00 soccer fields. at night paypal dump. anything they want to get rid of saving the fees charged by the official garbage dump down the road. for some 25 men, the dump his home and their work place, they sought anything that can be recycled earlier. i want to you that he, this is our life. alright. i was in or what i used to work at another landfill sites movie was a little devil double. we do

a good job at the and we don't bother anyway. no, no, no, they didn't. i nothing was a and i think one problem is that the discarded clothes, so mostly synthetic, so they take years to bio degrade incinerating them releases, chemicals that end up contaminating groundwater. fast fashion is an environmental nightmare. so that any walk on the samantha again, though i don't really mean we are counting on chiles, ministry of the environment, to develop a new strategy. let rober co owned receive them through an alley to make it compulsory and foreign porters to dispose of their clothing waste responsibly. cargo the liberal party is with you. slowly, the companies operating in the free trade zone are realizing it's time for a rethink. if only to improve their image, that particular boy will the field,

casey etha. what i can say is that the clothing import companies want to help things improve your well they want to address the negative impact of their business model. yeah. and they've got the others. what the situation is definitely going to change child privacy. i will probably put a few deny that reform is long overdue. it's up to fashion companies, politicians and consumers to change practices, policies, and behavior. otherwise, dumps like these will continue to grow with with they were underestimated and discriminated

against that they have proven themselves female entrepreneurs and india. what is the secret to their success? what had was to be overcome? and what do they need to to achieve? true, a quantity made in germany in 30 minutes on d w. o. ah

ah ah, this is the w news live from berlin, more heavy weapons for ukraine from western powers german chance that will upshot its announces berlin wilson, steve, modern anti aircraft, missiles and radar equipment in its war against russia. while the united states pledges advance.