New research from the Australia Institute reveals that Australians buy more clothes per person than any other country, intensifying a fast fashion waste crisis. The analysis shows that Australia has overtaken the US as the world’s largest consumer of textiles per capita, with a significant portion of this consumption being fast fashion that ultimately ends up in landfills.
In an interview with The Wire, Nina Gbor, the Director of the Circular Economy & Waste Program at the Australia Institute, highlighted that Australians are among the world’s largest consumers of clothes, shoes, and bags per capita. She emphasized the detrimental impact of this consumerism on both health and the environment.
Gbor stressed the urgent need to reduce waste at its source by holding brands accountable for producing low-cost, poor-quality clothing that often ends up in landfills after minimal use or even without being sold.
Vanessa Gatica: Can you elaborate on how fast fashion impacts both the environment and public health in Australia?
Nina Gbor: Yes. So the environmental impact is that a lot of, uh, majority of fast fashion is made from plastic, which comes from petroleum. Fossil fuels and plastic has a lot of toxic chemicals. It sheds microplastics, um, into the oceans and into the environment. But it has, you know, toxic chemicals such as PFAS, um, and other things that are have been known to cause cancer when they accumulate in the system and other illnesses, you know, like migraines, skin irritations, infertility and birth defects and many other issues.
Vanessa Gatica: What steps can individuals take to reduce their fashion related waste?
Nina Gbor: So use whenever you buy things. I think people can use them for longer periods of time rather than just buy and throw away. And I understand because, you know, I’ve mentioned the cost of living crisis. It’s not easy for people to buy clothing that’s better made and more, you know, higher quality. It’s more expensive. But what they can do is they can host and attend clothes swaps, you know, in their local communities, in their neighborhoods, you know, in their workplaces and in their schools, you know, exchange clothing because that secondhand clothing, there’s a reduction of microplastics, there’s a reduction of chemicals, in some cases, toxic chemicals in some cases. So those are better options, you know, buy secondhand op shop, you know, and create clothes swaps and attend clothes swaps. I think those are ways that we can circumvent excessive consumption and use the things that you have for much, much longer, buy less, use longer, swap and exchange. And then when you’re buying you, if you can find your items that you need second hand, let that be the first point of call before. If you have a no option, then maybe buy fast fashion.
Vanessa Gatica: What role do you believe businesses, consumers, and the government should each play in addressing the fast fashion waste crisis?
Nina Gbor: Uh, well, the government needs to put a levy or tax on fast fashion because it’s just way too cheap. You have fast fashion brands like she, and they’re selling a pair of jeans for $7. Um, and then, you know, selling coats is Teemu is selling coats for like $2.50. I’ve seen these adverts myself. So the government needs to put a tax, a levy on fast fashion. So we recommend, uh, about $10, which is based on the amount that the French government is putting on fast fashion. Um, and that will slow down consumption most hopefully that money can go into creating a better circular textiles industry in Australia. So for example, investing in Australian businesses that are manufacturing the right way, you know, using good quality materials. Um, and also, you know, um, using chemicals that are not toxic, creating products that can be composted at the end of the day. So that’s actually what we want. We want the money that’s going into fast fashion to go to be invested into Australian brands. Right. And we know that it’s expensive at the beginning. But I think eventually if we have a lot more brands in Australia who are manufacturing the right way and the government is investing into them and supporting them, it will become more affordable. Okay. Another thing that the government needs to do is the government needs to ban the export of fashion waste, and we need to ban textile export waste because it’s cheaper for us to export it than process it here in Australia. But what we’re doing is it’s filling up the landfills in countries in the global south. It’s polluting beaches, it’s making people sick. It’s, um, polluting the land. And it’s not fair. It’s not right. I think we need to manage our waste ourselves. If we ban the export of textile waste, that would incentivize us and force us to create, um, more recycling, onshore recycling facilities and also force us to look at reducing our waste from the start. Um, so we need to act fast and make sure these things are happening.
Vanessa Gatica: For the Wire/3ZZZ Speaking with Nina Gabor, the director of the Circular Economy and Waste program at the Australian Institute.