Page 2524 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 31 July 2019
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incontinence, mobility impairment and various degenerative diseases. The point is that everyone knows someone who uses these products.
These items serve an incredibly important purpose. They are not just optional products, they are fundamentally important and support our community to be healthy, mobile and independent. The value that we are adding, as a government, is in sharing information about the innovative array of reusable alternatives available in the marketplace.
It is also, as has been mentioned in the debate, about education. A very recent study into public awareness of the environmental impact of menstrual products and product choice found that in the UK many people were not aware of the amount of plastic used in disposable sanitary products.
What are some of the alternatives? If you were thinking that it is just cloth nappies you would be wrong. This is a market that has changed very significantly over the past few years. There is now a range of modern cloth nappies, nappy washing subscription services, menstrual cups made from medical-grade silicon and washable, absorbent period underwear, just to name a few of the options available. They are not always practical and certainly do not work for everyone. But these are alternatives that can help reduce waste to landfill, and they exist and are available right now.
Of course, this issue is not black and white and the consultation on phasing out single-use plastic led by the Transport Canberra and City Services Directorate really has underscored the complexity and impact of all the products we consume, whether they are made of plastic, natural fibres or a composite and whether they are designed to last for a single use, for days, weeks, months, years or even a lifetime. It is important for us to be aware that every product has an environmental cost and a waste footprint, from the inputs required to make its components, to the impacts of its manufacture and distribution, its use and of course end of life. One of the important impacts of course of cotton reusable nappies is the water cost, the environmental impact of the water that is taken to produce that product. That needs to be taken into account as well.
Of course there are many very valid reasons why people use these products. While there is no perfect solution that suits everyone we can definitely support better choices that will meet individual needs. And we are not in the business of removing people’s choices when it comes to nappies, sanitary items and incontinence products.
But there are some things we know with certainty right now, and I hope that this is something that the Canberra community knows by heart. The only way to dispose of single-use sanitary products, including nappies, is to put these items into the red bin or the garbage bin or an appropriate receptacle and into landfill. They do not belong in our sewerage system. Soiled nappies and other sanitary products must never be placed in the recycling bin because they cannot be recycled. Moreover, they contaminate the recycling process and present a workplace health and safety risk for the people who work at our materials recovery facility.
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