the clothes are getting lower quality is down to our own more heightened awareness of textile waste; either because we are buying up more of our quality second hands in the op shops or because the pressure to be seen as more sustainable and not be sending to landfill means they are sending what would normally go to landfill the instead. Then if we stop sending it there, how many people would be put out of work in an already struggling economical situation?
That might be our story, but I don't believe it's the story of many. Think KMart and other cheap clothing retailers - I don't think people are buying second hand clothes, just cheap as shit clothes that we still take to the op shop or whatever and that ends up over there.
I didn't know it was a program also, I just read the article. Sad that many are losing their income over it - they're hardly turning a profit due to most of it being unsellable.
That article is both hopeful and easy to dismiss - I'm a bit jaded and cynical with our government.
Fuck me, I want to move to SA - I can't see much happening here. Everyone's complaining as their feed in tariffs for solar have been almost cut in half - that means our electricity bills going to be higher - meaning without batteries (unaffordable and not best tech at moment) solar panels are pointless economically (because household finances are important). But then it's HABITS that need to change - we should be running appliances in the daytime, but we're at work - I'm sitting down tonight with the washing machine and dishwasher manual to figure out how to set timers so they go on at midday instead of earlier in morning when I leave for work and the sun isn't out! Most times I do as I'm part time and often home by 2/leave a little later, but Jamie's in the habit of turning it on 'whenever'.
Public transport from my place to the surf/town? Excuse me whilst I roll around on the ground laughing.
I'm not sure public transport will ever be able to be improved more in rural areas. Perhaps some train routes direct to the city, but I doubt anything going off to the coast would be considered. I live in the northern suburbs and currently they are electrifying the trains up this way, so transport to the city is actually worse than ever, catching multiple buses and hoping for no missed connections. In theory it should be improved once the work is all done and they may even extend the lines further north again. They are trying, though, which is something.
True. When the cheapest clothes in the shops are cheaper than the op shops, there is something wrong. We've been here 13 years now and are only just throwing out some clothes from the UK, but we go through the clothes we've bought here within a couple of years, if we're lucky. The cheapest clothes here are admittedly cheaper than the cheapest in the UK, but even when you pay more they don't seem to be any better quality unless you're paying eye watering prices. Maybe that's why the shipments they got from the UK were better quality than those from Australia. 🤔
Anyway, I suspect there's a multitude of reasons why the quality of what this country is sending there has been dropping recently. Was the quality of cheaper clothes here ever any good?