Page 1746 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 7 June 2022
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fast fashion is a big problem here. It is not just fashion; textiles also are the furnishings in our homes. It is on our couches, it is our curtains, it is our shoes and footwear. There is quite a lot of this stuff out there.
It is not always obvious to people how clothing generates carbon emissions and how it generates these environmental waste streams. It is sometimes better to look at it in a very specific context. If you look at the example of a T-shirt, first of all, you have to grow the cotton to make that T-shirt, and that takes land, water and energy; or you have to manufacture it from polyester, if it is made from a man-made material. You have to spin it, weave it and dye it. You have to make that piece of clothing. You have to package it and you have to transport it. There is an environmental impact from all of those stages.
Once somebody buys it and uses it—hopefully, many times—they then wash it and maybe they iron it. This usage stage adds quite a lot of impact. Analyses have found that it can add 40 per cent of a garment’s lifetime emissions, just from washing and ironing. In my house we are proud environmentalists, so we do not like to iron. We wash in cold water, and I am proud to say that my daughter, at the age of four, could not identify an ironing board. She had never seen one before. It is not because we are lazy; it is because we are environmental feminists. That is how we like to live.
Once all of that has happened, people discard it. Unfortunately, at the moment most of these items are being discarded. It is actually not that easy to recycle fibres. We have a burgeoning industry, but it is not quite mature and it needs a bit of help. That is one of the reasons why the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment recently singled out clothing as one of the problems in her scope 3 emissions report. Textiles and clothing are a bit of a problem for us.
The good news is that there are a lot of ways to reduce the impact. There are a lot of ways already in existence and there are a lot of ways that we can encourage the innovative business community and consumers to help us to reduce it even more. You can buy garments second-hand. That is a great option. You can buy garments that are made from recycled material. There are more and more manufacturers who are getting into that game. It is really good to see. I have seen UK data that shows if you are buying it second-hand or buying it from recycled material, you can cut 99 per cent of your emissions at the manufacturing stage. It is a really big saving.
There is also real value if we can build up our local manufacture of recycled fibres. That helps us to make good jobs right here in the ACT. It also reduces a lot of other environmental and human problems. It cuts down modern slavery. It helps us to make sure that we have really good standards of workers’ rights. It helps us to reduce exploitation.
Australia does not manufacture as much as it once did. For textiles, clothing and footwear, this is especially true. We would like to see much more of that in Australia, and right here in the ACT.
I would like to acknowledge the important work of the textile, clothing and footwear union, now part of the CFMEU’s manufacturing division. They have done some great
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