Textile Waste

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (14:53): My question is to the Minister for Climate, Environment and Water. Can the Deputy Premier provide an update to the house on efforts to reduce textile waste to landfill in South Australia?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Minister for Workforce and Population Strategy) (14:53): Thank you very much for this question on World Environment Day, 5 June. It is a pleasure for me to bring the house up to date on work that is being done on recycling textiles. People may well be aware that this is one of the national priorities for recycling and one of the most challenging resources to get back into being used rather than wasted. I was astonished to read recently that there is on average some 26 kilos of fabrics bought every year by every Australian. That is a huge volume, and it is not easy to recycle.

There was recently a wonderful initiative undertaken on 25 May, led by Green Industries, alongside other partners, to whom I will refer shortly, to encourage people to bring used sheets and towels. There was a wonderful response, which indicates and really underscores the extent to which people in South Australia are keen to do recycling and keen to be kinder to the planet. The event was coordinated across eight local councils and was organised with the local textiles recycler and re-manufacturer, BlockTexx, and the Bedford Group.

What the event did was to create eight locations for people to come along and dispose of their linens and towels. It is called Give a Sheet for the Planet. Many South Australians were able to come and recycle. I went along to the Beverley place with the Minister for Local Government, the Hon. Joe Szakacs, and also the mayor, Angela, who came along as well, and we were able to see a constant stream of people going past, providing this material.

What BlockTexx does is use a unique and, we believe, world-leading technology that is able to separate polyester and cotton fibres. Polyester and cotton are the most commonly used in combination to produce both bed linen and towels. They are able to extract the cotton, which can turn into a matting that is able to be used for primary production as a form of mulch for weed suppression and for keeping moisture in the soil. They are also then able to take the polyester out and use that to turn it into plastic pellets that can be then used to produce other products. So what that does is reduce the need for virgin material, plastic material, to make those products and also to replace the kind of mulching that would otherwise take place.

What was impressive—and I am just looking for the exact figures—is that there were 9.7 tonnes of material collected in that one day, and it was the biggest event that's occurred in Australia. That equates to about 40,000 bed sheets or 100,000 towels collected in South Australia in one day, not only because the councils chose to participate, not only because there is this Australian world-leading technology, but also because people gave a sheet. They actually cared enough about the environment to load up what would otherwise go to landfill, drive along and take it to a place that could turn it into recycled products.

It is that element—and full congratulations to the councils involved, which I will just briefly name: City of Adelaide, Adelaide Hills, Burnside, Charles Sturt, Port Adelaide Enfield, Onkaparinga, Salisbury and City of West Torrens. Not only full congratulations to them, but absolute full congratulations to the people of South Australia who, since we have had container deposit legislation for more than 40 years, have demonstrated leadership across Australia, with the highest recycling per capita, as listed in the most recent State of the Environment report.