Australia Joins Ranks in Push for Fast Fashion Tax

An Australian research group has found that the country’s consumers purchase more apparel than any other nation in the world—and it’s recommending a tax on fast fashion to address the massive buildup of waste.

According to the Australia Institute, the Land Down Under has officially surpassed the U.S. as the biggest consumer of textiles per capita, and much of that material ends up lining landfills at the end of its useful life. In fact, the group’s research revealed that more than 200,000 tons of clothing are dumped every year—a volume equivalent to nearly four times the weight of the Sydney Harbor Bridge.

Australians purchase an average of 56 pieces of new clothing annually, beating out the U.S. by three pieces per year. UK shoppers purchase an average of 33 new apparel items every 12 months, while Chinese consumers buy 30 new garments.

In addition to buying clothing in higher volumes, Australians are paying less per piece, with the price of a garment averaging $13 AUD ($8.64). By contrast, the average apparel item purchased by UK consumers costs $40 AUD ($26.59), while U.S. consumers pay about $24 AUD ($15.95) per garment and Japanese shoppers shell out $30 AUD ($19.94).

While Australian consumers are undoubtedly contributing to the take-make-waste cycle, the Australia Institute’s polling of more than 1,000 adults also showed that 63 percent are concerned or very concerned about the environmental ramifications of overconsumption and textile waste. Notably, 71 percent believe businesses bear responsibility for addressing the issue, followed by consumers (57 percent) and the government (54 percent).

“Australians are the world’s biggest consumer of clothes, shoes and bags per capita. We’re addicted to stuff that is harming our health and the environment,” Australia Institute circular economy and waste program director Nina Gbor said.

“We need to drastically reduce waste at the source by penalizing brands mass-producing incredibly cheap and poor quality clothing that is often worn just a handful of times or never sells and goes straight to the tip,” she added. The average garment is worn as few as seven times before it’s ditched in favor of something new, according to Australian Fashion Council data.

The group is now proposing several measures that it believes the Australian government could adopt to stem the flow of cheap goods, including a French-style fast fashion tax on unsustainable, “problematic” products that linger in landfills indefinitely. The lower house of French parliament recently passed a bill that would add a five-euro tax to items deemed to fit the definition of fast fashion.

Australia’s government has already taken aim at the issue. Last year, Member of Parliament Tanya Plibersek, who serves as the Minister for the Environment and Water, launched “Seamless,” a scheme that aims to create a circular textile economy in Australia by 2030 on the back of a 4-cent per garment levy. The money generated will be used to bolster circular innovation and expand activities like clothing collection, sortation and recycling.

The National Clothing Product Stewardship Consortium, which is led by the Australian Fashion Council and comprised of groups like Charitable Recycling Australia, Queensland University of Technology , Sustainable Resource Use, and WRAP Asia Pacific, has collaborated with the country’s recycling council, retail associations and waste management and resource recovery associations to develop the framework for the program, which will go into operation on July 1.

But Gbor said the stakes are too low to make a measurable impact. “This is a good start, but the levy is too low to change brand behavior,” she believes. “It should be increased drastically to at least 50 cents per item. This, coupled with measures like a fast fashion tax, is needed to put the industry on notice.”

The Australia Institute has also recommended the banning of the export of textile waste within five years, citing research from the Australian Fashion Council that shows 105,000 tons of used textiles are ferried off to far-away locales each year in a practice the group called “waste colonization.”

“Many of these items end up in landfill or are dumped in countries in the Global South, where they fill up their landfills, pollute beaches and oceans and contribute to more emissions,” Gbor said.

Government-funded discounts for people who opt to repair their clothing, federal funding for textile circularity and more support for community efforts and recycling initiatives could also move the needle, according to the group’s report.

With fast-fashion behemoths Shein and Temu projected to make more than $2 billion in combined sales this year, Gbor believes there’s a well of resources to tap into for environmental initiatives. “The Federal Government could redirect some of their profits to cut clothing waste and fund a domestic recycling and a circular textiles industry,” she said.