Around 39,000 tonnes of used clothing are illegally dumped each year in Chile's Atacama Desert (one of the world's driest landscapes, in the country's far north), the unwanted residue of a vast second-hand garments trade flowing in from the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. The clothes arrive through Iquique's free-trade zone, where import firms sort and sell them, but unsold stock cannot enter Chile's regular waste system and traders often resort to illegal burning or dumping rather than bear the cost of authorised disposal. A new Chilean recycling law placing responsibility on importers and retailers for end-of-life textiles is now spurring private investment, including a $7 million factory set to convert discarded clothing into industrial felt for use in mattresses, furniture, and vehicle interiors.