There’s a dark side to Australia’s Christmas shopping spree | Amanda Blair

I’m about to pop your festival bauble with a few un-festive facts, writes Amanda Blair.

Look, I don’t want to put a dampener on your Xmas spending, nor do I want to make an enemy of the retail sector, but you guys have to really think about what you buy this festive season.

Adelaide Economic Development Agency (AEDA) said shoppers were likely to spend an eye watering $59,470,756 on “stuff” over the Black Friday sales.

I can only imagine the amount of coin being tossed in the next 16 shopping days.

On one hand this is great because it means that traders can pay the rent, continue to employ staff and take them to Fasta Pasta for the end of year party.

The economy is ticking over.

But on the other, it means that we’ve filled our lives, cupboards and Santa’s sack with lots of stuff we really don’t need.

I know at Xmas we’re supposed to be happy and sing Mariah Carey’s only memorable song and give joy to the world but I’m about to pop your festival bauble with a few un-festive facts.

Amanda Blair models some op-shop ensembles.

Amanda Blair models some op-shop ensembles.

Averaged out, Australians buy 56 items of clothing a year many of which are made from cheap fabrics that look terrible after only a few wears – hence we buy more, in fact 60% more than we did 15 years ago.

Amanda Blair models some op-shop ensembles.

We are the largest consumers of textiles in the world, 1.4 billion new items were sold here last year.

Yet we only wear 40 per cent of our clothes dumping, sorry “donating” 27 kilos of unwanted clothing to op-shops annually per person. Only 15 per cent gets sold, the rest gets cut into car washing rags or sent overseas to be traded in markets.

What they don’t use (often because we’ve sent them dirty, damaged unwearable clothing) is left to rot on the beaches or in the streets.

One op-shop chain in Adelaide sends 24 tonnes overseas per week – can you imagine the size of this globally, even nationally?

We dump clothes here too, 222,000 tonnes last year went into landfill, the weight of four Sydney Harbour Bridges.

Fashion is a major global polluter, responsible for 10 per cent of C02 emissions and dodgy sweatshops still exist.

Google “Uighurs in forced labour camps in Xinjiang Province” if you want to feel great about stepping out in your new cheap threads.

In 2023 the Australian Fashion Council launched Seamless, a product stewardship scheme where brands are required to take responsibility for recycling/sustainable disposal of their clothing and over 60 major brands have signed up.

Recently in California they took it one step further and made it law passing the first Responsible Textile Recovery Act.

More locally, arranged via Deputy Premier Susan Close, I met with Green Industries in Ragelaide (get it?) to discuss the SA Gov’s response to this problem and they have it on their radar.

Deputy SA Premier Susan Close. Picture: NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Why me?

Well, for 13 years I’ve volunteered in this op-shop space with Dulcie’s Bus and lie awake at night horrified by the waste I’ve seen while dreaming up better ways to reuse, recycle, promote the slow fashion movement making us more aware that fa fa fa fashion is fu fu f**king us up.

Op-shops do an awesome job with what limited resources they have but ultimately this problem starts and ends with us.

We need to consume less and stop this ridiculous notion that we need to wear a different outfit in every insta shot.

Here’s a hot life tip – whatever emotional hole you have can’t be filled by a quick trip to the shops to pick up a new white T-shirt.

Let’s stop being influenced by … um … influencers and find our own style that doesn’t require us to wear whatever it is that they’re selling.

We can’t keep expecting the op-shop sector to turn our over-consumption of cheap fashion trash into treasure, we’re drowning.

Ultimately, clothes don’t maketh the man, but man maketh the clothes and it’s time for the ultimate stocktake.

Originally published as There’s a dark side to Australia’s Christmas shopping spree | Amanda Blair