Climate Change to Target Fashion Industry; This will be Interesting! By Mrs Vera West
The thought had occurred to me that the climate change alarmist agenda after going after fossil fuels and meat must one day tackle the fashion industry and cosmetics, girl stuff. Notice how all the big department stores have a cosmetics section at the entrance? It is big business, and women love it. Likewise for clothes. But if cars and meat are a problem, well so is stuff for women. And, there is a neat dilemma for the climate elites, to go up against another powerful lobby.
Still, it is early days yet, and only small battles are being waged. Thus, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has put the local fashion industry on notice. She is concerned about the waste, when it comes to the 210,000 tonnes of clothing and textiles that end up in Australian landfill dumps every year. And maybe there is a point to this, not from a climate change perceptive, but just in terms of waste production and efficiency.
So, agreed, much can be done with recycling and not producing as much waste in the first place. But there will still be the climate change demon upon the shoulder of the Left, as one T-shirt requires 2700 litres of water (more than you would drink in three years) and six kilograms of carbon. Gasp!
If meat is banned, will clothes be banned as well, so nudity will become compulsory? Winter would no doubt aid the depopulation agenda, as we freeze to death. Just a thought.
"Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has put the local fashion industry on notice when it comes to the 210,000 tonnes of clothing and textiles that end up in Australian landfill every year.
Ms Plibersek delivered a call to arms for fashion brands to rethink volume and speed of manufacturing, noting that to make just one T-shirt requires 2700 litres of water (more than one person would drink in three years) and six kilograms of carbon.
"If it's the fashion industry that makes the profits, then it must be responsible for doing better by the environment."
She said effective industry stewardship schemes, as operate for oil and tyres, were preferable to "government having to regulate every industry".
"Government intervention is more complex and time-consuming. Industry is best placed to work out ways to deal with waste problems," she said.
"If there is unwillingness, if there are free riders or greenwashing, we will step in."
Last year, the minister introduced a pilot program with the Australian Fashion Council, Seamless, to help reduce textile waste and curb consumer appetite for throwaway fashion.
A 4 per cent levy on imported textiles was touted by the scheme last year, and is slated to begin in June. Ms Plibersek noted that retailers including Cotton On Group and Naomi Milgrom's Sussan Group had joined the list of companies committed to paying the levy.
"The progress for establishing the organisation has been good," she said. "The size of the retailers joining is encouraging. But I'd like to see more large companies joining."
She spoke at a Sydney event that awarded eBay's inaugural $100,000 circular fashion fund prize to Guy Dempster, founder of Dempstah, a textile recycling service that spins unwanted garments into yarn to be used again.
Recently, the company took 500 kilograms of waste textiles from Sydney-based Salvo's stores, transforming it into a cotton and wool yard blend for reuse. Long-term, Mr Dempster aims to establish a local fibre recovery mill where textiles can be repurposed.
"Recycling is not a silver bullet," he said. "We also need to massively reduce our consumption. But recycling is more than just reuse. It can teach us about best design practice.
"You see that things like embroidery and applique make it harder to recycle, that certain materials can't be recycled. That can then be fed upstream to designers for better clothes in the first place.""
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