cing, with some estimates suggesting these retailers churn out up to 10,000 new designs per day, and sell items for almost half the cost of comparable products. Ultrafast fashion and changing consumer expectations have created a toxic combination of textile waste and environmental impact. While governments are trying to combat this environmental impact through regulation focused on creating a circular economy, that is, an economy designed to minimise waste and maximise resource efficiency by keeping materials in use for as long as possible, Australia is still lagging. Legislative change is required if we are to address the waste crisis. The government recently put out a public consultation to review Australia’s Recycling and Waste Reduction Act, which couldn’t come at a more critical time. The current Act does not go far enough to drive the industry behavioural change required to move from a take-make-waste linear model to a circular one, nor does it consider the realities of Australia’s infrastructure and the challenges of investment to deliver circularity. A Recycling and Waste Act should focus on creating regional loops and product stewardship to ensure more waste is diverted from landfills and put back into our economy. Waste exports Significant investment has already been made by organisations within Australia to recycle some plastics (including synthetic textiles). But the reality is Australia does not have the infrastructure, volume of waste, nor size of population to economically support the significant investment required to increase recycling of all plastic and textile materials and make a material impact on our waste problem. Take synthetic textile waste and engineered plastic. Local recycling facilities simply don’t have the technology to process these kinds of materials. Some may be downcycled to lesser-value products, but this only perpetuates our dependence on virgin materials. Where recycling solutions do not exist in country and cannot be developed commercially locally, Australia should participate in regional and/or international recycling supply chains. To support this, restrictions should not be placed on the export of these items to international recycling facilities, where Australia’s waste would be recycled back into materials that can re-enter Australian supply chains.  Product stewardship Product stewardship is key to delivering products designed with circularity in mind, as decisions at the design stage impact a product’s entire lifecycle. As demonstrated through the EU’s Ecodesign Sustainable Products Regulation, legislation around recycling and waste must consider the product design stage of the supply chain to drive change at the source. This includes: Mandated recycled content with application across a broader range of problematic categories like textiles. Today, only 0.3 per cent of textiles are made from recycled textiles. This regulation is one of the most critical changes to drive sustainable, long-term industry change.  It is required to support commercial decision-making within an organisation to transition to circular raw materials over virgin equivalents. We’ve seen this work in packaging already. We need to take these lessons and apply them to other industries such as textiles.   Design for circularity, including the selection of raw materials that are easier to recycle.  Limit the use of multi-layer and blended materials, which are difficult to separate and often render the whole item unrecyclable.   Clearer labelling guidelines to improve the sorting of waste for recycling.   Mandatory extended producer responsibility, as current voluntary mandates are inadequate to support a systemic shift from industry to take responsibility for the products they create. For example, requiring textile producers to be responsible for the collection, sorting, recycling and reuse of the products they produce and sell will significantly reduce the volumes going to landfill.  Improved visibility, mandating all producers to report on unsold and overproduced products, have a management plan for any excess and make it illegal to destroy unsold products.    Expanding the scope of the current Act and moving to mandatory compliance versus voluntary schemes will be vital to reducing waste, increasing recycling and enabling circularity. Retailers and producers should not wait for regulatory change. They should also consider these elements as part of their supply chain to help reduce waste and increase circularity. It’s not too late to curb Australia’s waste crisis. With the regulatory frameworks, brand support and consumer awareness, a brighter, circular future is ahead.