Page 2513 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 31 July 2019
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(d) producing educational material highlighting the benefits of using sustainable and environmentally-friendly types of nappies and sanitary products; and
(7) requests the ACT Government to report back on this work to the Assembly in July 2020.
Madam Assistant Speaker Orr, I am proud to have moved this motion today, the last day of plastic-free July, and to follow on, quite neatly, from your motion from earlier today. This is fundamentally a motion about sustainability. It is also one about choice, about ensuring that we as a government do what we can to encourage consumers to consider making sustainable choices with sanitary and nappy products, if that is something that works for the consumer. It is about removing barriers that might be stopping people giving these products, or even at least considering giving these products, a go.
Here is why it is important for us to do more: disposable nappies and incontinence and sanitary products are resource intensive to create, they are not recyclable and our use of them is enormous. Their creation and production require the use of a significant amount of water and plastic. Australians and New Zealanders use roughly 3.75 million disposable nappies every day, and it takes up to 150 years for these to decompose. The average person uses around 10,000 disposable menstrual products over the course of their life, and things like disposable pads, whether for menstruation or incontinence, take more than 500 years to decompose. Their contribution to landfill is significant and, if not disposed of correctly, they risk blocking or harming our plumbing and sewerage systems.
This is not a motion about shaming people who use these disposable products. Consumers value choice, and I absolutely recognise that, for many people, disposable products might be what works for them. There are plenty of reasons and circumstances where and why disposable products are absolutely appropriate. This motion does not dispute that, and nor do I.
But it is important to recognise that, increasingly, there are alternatives available, sustainable alternatives such as cloth nappies, re-usable sanitary and incontinence pads, menstrual cups, and period and incontinence underwear. As a government committed to reducing landfill, and a strong proponent of reduce, re-use and recycle—in that order—it is worth discussing and considering whether more can be done to promote and encourage use of these sustainable products and to remove any barriers to their use, if, of course, that is what works for the consumer.
The phrase “cloth nappies” might evoke images of white squares of cotton pegged to a clothesline, blowing in the wind. Perhaps it evokes flashbacks of carefully trying to fasten a safety pin without nipping a little, wriggly tummy. Today the options available to parents seem almost endless in comparison, from more old-fashioned varieties to brightly-coloured, shapely nappies that are as easy to manoeuvre as their disposable counterparts.
The Canberra Environment Centre has witnessed a newfound momentum building behind cloth nappies. The centre is already leading the charge with an on-site cloth
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