Australia’s clothes consumption disaster, together with an habit to quick style, can’t be solved via present measures, resembling a small levy on new clothes, with a brand new report saying drastic motion is required to sort out waste and enhance circularity.
These findings come as an evaluation of knowledge on textile and clothes consumption by suppose tank the Australia Institute discovered that Australians are the largest purchasers of latest clothes on the planet per capita, with 56 items a yr, forward of the US on 53 items. The UK is in third place with 33 items, forward of China on 30.
Australians’ habit to new garments is making a waste disaster.Credit score: iStock
Based on the report, Australians are additionally hooked on low cost clothes, with the typical worth of every new garment being $13, in comparison with $40 for his or her UK counterparts.
For years, Australia has been cited because the second-biggest shopper of clothes textiles behind the US however this new analysis, which contains knowledge from the Australian Style Council and worldwide sources, challenges this long-held view.
Every year, Australians discard greater than 300,000 tonnes of clothes, nearly all of which fits to landfill or offshore for processing or recycling. Though consciousness of style’s footprint on the setting is arguably larger than ever, the quantity of textiles despatched to landfill is steadily growing, whereas the proportion being recycled largely stays stagnant, at round 5 per cent.
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One of many report’s extra controversial suggestions is {that a} proposed 4 cent proposed tariff on each garment produced is grossly insufficient to have a big impression on the creation of a viable home recycling system for textiles.
The report suggests the tariff, an initiative of the Seamless clothes stewardship scheme that has federal authorities backing, must be within the order of fifty cents per garment to create significant change.
“This [four cent levy] is an effective begin, however the levy is just too low to alter model behaviour,” says Nina Gbor, who co-authored the report and is the director of the Round Economic system & Waste Program on the Australia Institute. “Seamless … is a step in the appropriate course, however have to be accompanied by measures that drastically cut back waste on the supply whereas constructing a round economic system.”
