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Chile

- Written by Daniel

Which kind of waste bins do you have in your household? 

​In Chile there is no nationally standardized bins for recycling waste. It’s completely depending of each Municipality. As an example, in the same province, a commune can ask for people to separate their waste in different bins and another commune may not even have a recycling program established. The only case I know requested to separate waste in these categories: organic, plastic, tetrapak, toilet paper, cardboard and glass. The garbage truck would come on Monday just for organic waste and then on Wednesdays for all the other categories. But this is a very specific case.

What kind of textile waste recycling points are there?

As it was said earlier there is no standardized recycling points along the country. They depend exclusively of municipalities, NGOs or companies that will use the donated clothes for different purposes.

What is the general attitude toward secondhand clothing in Chile?

Secondhand clothes are highly popular in Chile. Mostly due to their prices. There is secondhand stores in every city in the country. Buying clothes in departmental stores in a mall is deemed as boomer. The quest of a unique and exclusive visual identity is what drives the secondhand clothes industry.

Where do people usually buy or sell secondhand clothes?

There are secondhand stores in almost all major cities in the country. Even in the countryside it’s possible to find these stores. In Santiago there’s some popular places to find secondhand clothes (or American clothes, as we would call them) like Banderas street and Persa Bío-Bío which have multiple stores all in one place and COANIQUEM and debuenafe, both NGOs that use what they earn to help their target beneficiaries.

How much textile waste is generated in Chile? How much ends up in landfills, how much is recycled ?

People in Chile generate 572000 tonnes of textile waste per year. As this only counts domestic waste, the actual number of textile waste is bigger. Companies that import secondhand or unsold clothes illegally dump the stock they can’t sell. According to Ekō. 85% of the imported clothes in Iquique will remain unsold and by extension will be dumped. The biggest dump in Atacama, before the 2022 burning, weighted between 11000 to 59000 tons.

How many pieces of clothing does the average person in Chile own?

There is no current data on the average garments an average person in Chile owns. But here is information disaggregated data of different textiles items. According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Environment in 2023 that had 2243 people surveyed, 9% reported to have more than 50 tops, 13% between 31 and 50 tops, 24% answered 21 to 30 tops, 35% has between 11 and 20 tops and a 19% reported to have less than 10 tops. Here top means shirts, dresses and hoodies. For bottoms, which the study classified as skirts, shorts and jeans, a 45% of the respondents reported to own less than 10 garments, 36% owns between 11 and 20, 12% reported to have between 21 and 30 garments, a 5% reported to have between 31 and 50 bottoms and only 1.47% owns more than 50.

What is one thing that your country could learn from Malaysia/ U4B?

I would say the established business model of U4B is something worthy of imitation. Particularly because multiple companies have failed in establishing themselves long term in Chile. Something that the Ministry of Environment is planning to revert with the inclusion of textiles as priority product in the Extended Producer Responsability law and their 2040 goal of promoting textiles recycle as a practice and business opportunity.

What are some national campaigns or organizations in your country promoting textile recycling or reuse?

As of 2026, there is no governmental campaigns promoting textiles recycling but there a national strategy road map created by the Ministry of Environment that pretends to create propaganda pro textile recycling, including the promotion of it in textbooks and University courses. The only organizations with enough budget to promote recycling are departmental stores that ran ads on multiple different media promoting recycling, exchanging, repairing and redesign old clothes.

Which facts shocked you during your research?

I knew Chile had a problem with clothes ending up in illegal landfills in the north of Chile. But I had no idea Chile has become by 2021 in the 4th largest importer of secondhand and unsold clothes, making it the first in Latin America. According to customs statistics, only in 2024 46 millions tons of clothes arrived to Chile via the Iquique port. What shocks me the most is how unfathomable that number is.

References

 

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