As on previous occasions and in line with its commitment to respect and care for the environment, Ecoalf has not launched a campaign Black Friday. Instead, it has chosen to make visible the reality of the textile landfills and the impact of fast fashion and excessive consumption to encourage consumers to reflect and change habits.
He has done it through video report “From reality to action”barely two minutes long, and which shows Javier Goyeneche, Founder and President of Ecoalf, in the Atacama desert, converted into one of the largest textile landfills in the world for a year.
Director Stella Banderas directs and narrates the video report.
As explained in the video, thousands of tons of clothing arrive in the Atacama Desert every year. These are, for the most part, cheap and poor quality clotheswith mixed synthetic fibers, and which cannot be recycled, which causes them to remain there for centuries.
The piece also points out that, to avoid the accumulation of materials, these garments are burned, which leads to the release of harmful chemicals for the environment and for the surrounding communities. Additionally, hundreds of people risk their health every day trying to make a living by rescuing and reselling waste.
To a large extent, the situation in the Atacama Desert is the result of Black Friday, which in 2023 exceeded $67.6 billion globally. That is why Ecoalf has taken advantage of the commercial event to claim a change in the way of consuming.
“We need to stop consuming unconsciously, invest in timeless garments made from high-quality, low-impact recycled materials that can last from season to season and be recycled at the end of their life cycle.”, explains the brand in a statement. “We have to shift towards a circular fashion model that does not depend on the waste we make of clothing or the constant use of new resources”.
Under the cconcept “Break the habit, not the planet”, The clothing brand encourages you to take advantage of this Black Friday to turn it into an opportunity to change consumer behavior. The claim is the one that also accompanies the Ecoalf campaign, with which it offers 0% discount to generate awareness among users.
Ecoalf’s video report is not the first by a fashion brand to make visible the reality of textile landfills. Last May, Blue Banana released the short documentary film “Wonder to Wasteland”, directed by Nicolás Pina and starring climate activist Carlota Bruna, in which it also reflected the problems existing in the clothing dump located in the Atacama Desert, in Chile.
