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Susan Tait has been making furniture in Thomastown in Melbourne's north for 32 years. 

Every year, she and her husband were sending 500 kilograms of wasted fabric to landfill.

"Someone said that's the size of a one-year-old elephant," joked Tait. 

"We've always tried to be as sustainable as possible while manufacturing locally."

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"But we didn't really have any solution for fabric."

That changed in January 2023 when Tait found after.

She was hunting for a solution online when she stumbled across 'Australia's first textile recycling pick-up and reward service.'

"That was a really big peace of mind for us."

"The girls have managed to partner with enough people so you can actually just send the entire upholstery cover to them including zips, buttons, tags, every part."

Those girls are Yesha Patel and Nehal Jain, who teamed up in 2022 after Yesha became frustrated with the lack of options she had to recycle old, unwearable clothes. 

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"As someone who used to buy a lot of fast fashion, I had a lot of clothes in my wardrobe that were quite unwearable."

"It felt wrong to send them to an op shop because they were really worn out."

"I didn't know what to do with them and I felt lost. I went online but there was hardly anything there; especially things that I could do as a consumer."

Australians buy more clothes per person than any other country in the world.

The average Australian will buy 56 new items of clothing every year. As a country, we throw out 300,000 tonnes of clothing. 

A total of 200,000 tonnes of that is going to landfill. The other 100,000 tonnes are being sent overseas to countries that do not have the facilities or expertise to properly recycle textiles. 

"We don't have – any at scale – recycling infrastructure that does fibre to fibre [in Australia]," Patel said. 

"We're big on keeping textiles at their highest possible value. We don't want to turn it into insulation, we want to recycle it into new yarn and that's what we cannot do right now in Australia." 

Since launching with a five-kilometre limit in the middle of a COVID-19 lockdown, after has expanded its collection service across metro Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland and diverted more than 11 tonnes of textile waste from landfill. 

Mum of two, Elly Ackland, was one of their first customers after finding the start-up via a local Facebook group. 

"I really liked the idea of knowing that stuff which I couldn't use anymore – and that I didn't think anybody else would really want to use – could actually be dealt with properly and not just not just go off to landfill; which just makes me feel sick, quite frankly," said Elly.

"I wear things until they fall to bits. I hate overconsumption.

"I'm prepared to pay a small amount – it's not a lot of money – if it's going to guarantee that this is getting done properly. That's something that I'm prepared to invest in."

After charges $20 to collect five kilograms of textile waste from your front door. 

The team schedules monthly collections and the more you recycle, the cheaper it gets.

"Recycling is not free so cost has definitely been a challenge for us," explains Yesha.   

The bigger challenge, she explains, is a lack of Australian expertise in turning textile waste into yarn that can be reused. 

"We are relying on people in India, because they have access to more labour, infrastructure and the global market for recycled products," she said.

"It's not ideal because of transportation there, but our goal is to really interact and learn from what they're doing."

"If it's got life in it, if it's still good enough to wear or if an item can still be repaired, don't give it to us.

"[Wvery] household and individual has old towels or bedding they put in the bin, or kids that grow out of clothes that have been torn or worn out. That's where we are here to help."

The team at after have been calling for the Australian government to do more in tackling the problem and invest in options to recycle textiles locally. 

Unlike France, which has introduced a $16 tax on fast fashion, Australia has opted for a voluntary, four cent tax which retailers are not obligated to pay.

All of that money will go to Seamless; a not-for-profit organisation pushing for a circular fashion economy by 2030. 

Tait believes that customers are already driving that change. 

"We're also seeing fabric houses creating new fabric from recycled yarn, and we're also seeing a great interest from the market – people requesting it and willing to pay a little bit more for it."

"That's really satisfying."

"It's not only something we are passionate about, but it's exciting to see it become good business."

More than 90,000 participants turned out to compete in the 14km race from Sydney's CBD to Bondi Beach.

If you graduated from the first place on the list, you have an almost 1-in-20 chance of becoming a chief executive, according to this data.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will hold an urgent meeting with ministers and top law enforcement officials as he seeks to end days of street violence and attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers, which he has described as thuggery.

Lawlessness has swept the country over the past six days as right-wing activists used social media to spread misinformation to whip up anger over a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and many more wounded.

False rumours spread online that the suspect was a Muslim and an immigrant, leading to attacks on immigrants and Muslims.

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On Sunday, angry mobs attacked two hotels used to house asylum seekers, breaking windows and lighting fires before police dispersed the crowds and residents were evacuated.

During Monday's meeting of the government's emergency response committee, known as Cobra, police chiefs and government ministers are expected to develop a response to ensure there is no repeat of the violence.

"As Keir said, as every decent person has said, I think these are far-right thugs who attacked some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and there is absolutely no excuse," Oliver Coppard, the mayor of South Yorkshire, told the BBC.

"There can never be any excuse for trying to burn to death 200 of the most vulnerable people in our community."

The Home Office, which is responsible for law and order, has offered mosques greater protection under a new "rapid response process" designed to quickly tackle the threat of further attacks on places of worship.

Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has resigned and fled the country amid widening unrest, military officials have confirmed, ending 15 years in power.

Thousands of anti-government protesters defied a military curfew and stormed her official residence in the capital of Dhaka on Monday, following weeks of violent demonstrations and clashes with security forces.

Shortly after local media showed the embattled leader boarding a military helicopter with her sister, Bangladesh's military chief Gen. Waker-uz-Zaman announced plans to seek the president's guidance on forming interim government.

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He promised that the military would stand down, and to launch an investigation into the deadly crackdowns that fuelled outrage against the government, and asked citizens for time to restore peace.

"Keep faith in the military, we will investigate all the killings and punish the responsible," he said.

"I have ordered that no army and police will indulge in any kind of firing."

"Now, the students' duty is to stay calm and help us," he added.

The protests began peacefully in late June, as students sought an end to a quota system for government jobs, but turned violent after clashes between protesters and police and pro-government activists at Dhaka University.

The government attempted to quell the violence with force, leaving nearly 300 people dead and fueling further outrage and calls for Hasina to step down.

At least 95 people, including at least 14 police officers, died in clashes in the capital on Sunday, according to the country's leading Bengali-language daily newspaper, Prothom Alo. Hundreds more were injured in the violence.

At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks. The unrest has also resulted in the closure of schools and universities across the country, and authorities at one point imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew.

Over the weekend, protesters called for a "non-cooperation" effort, urging people not to pay taxes or utility bills and not to show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to their jobs.

Hasina offered to talk with student leaders on Saturday, but a co-ordinator refused and announced a one-point demand for her resignation.

Hasina repeated her pledges to investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said she was ready to sit down whenever the protesters want.

Authorities shut off mobile internet on Sunday in an attempt to quell the unrest, while the broadband internet was cut off briefly on Monday morning. It was the second internet blackout in the country after the protests turned deadly in July.

On Monday, after three hours of suspension of broadband services, both broadband and mobile internet returned.

Hasina had said protesters who engaged in "sabotage" and destruction were no longer students but criminals, and she said the people should deal with them with iron hands.

The 76-year-old was elected for a fourth consecutive term in a January vote that was boycotted by her main opponents, triggering questions over how free and fair the vote was.

Thousands of opposition members were jailed in the lead-up to the polls, which the government defended as democratically held.

Today, she is the longest-serving leader in the history of Bangladesh, a predominantly Muslim nation of over 160 million people strategically located between India and Myanmar.

Her political opponents have previously accused her of growing increasingly autocratic and called her a threat to the country's democracy, and many now say the unrest is a result of her authoritarian streak and hunger for control at all costs.

Japan's stock market suffered its biggest ever one-day loss on Monday as a global sell-off intensified following weak US jobs data.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 ended the day 4451 lower, which is the biggest drop by number of points in history.

The index finished more than 12 per cent down, pushing its losses to 24 per cent since early July.

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The index has now entered bear market territory, which is defined as a 20 per cent pullback from recent highs.

Amid steep declines, trading was halted for short periods of time in Japan and South Korea.

Circuit breakers, which pause trading amid strong volatility in an effort to prevent panic selling, were triggered multiple times in Tokyo and Seoul.

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On Friday, the Nikkei closed down 5.8 per cent, marking its biggest daily drop since March 2020, as traders fretted about the impact of a stronger yen on Japanese companies after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) signalled further rate hikes could be on the way.

A rising yen would hurt exporters and companies with overseas earnings.

A rapid appreciation in the Japanese currency has also forced many market participants to unwind the yen carry trade, a hugely popular trading strategy.

With interest rates having been extremely low in Japan for decades, many investors have borrowed cash cheaply there and converted it to other currencies and invested in higher-yielding assets.

Last week, the yen surged nearly five per cent against the greenback.

On Monday, it strengthened further, up 2.2 per cent to trade at 143.3 per US dollar.

"This beefier yen set off a domino effect, triggering a global unwinding of carry trades," said Stephen Innes, managing partner of SPI Asset Management.

From there, the market turmoil morphed into a "full-on avalanche," propelled by a surprisingly hawkish turn from the BOJ, China's economic pace slowing to a crawl and weak US tech earnings, he added.

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Last week, the BOJ raised interest rates by 15 basis points to 0.25 per cent in its second hike this year and announced plans to taper its bond buying.

Traders expect more rate hikes to come later this year as the central bank tries to contain inflation.

China reported last Wednesday that its official manufacturing PMI fell in July, signalling continued weakness in factory activity.

In the United States, Amazon (AMZN) reported on Thursday an earnings miss for the second quarter and disappointing guidance for the third quarter.

Intel (INTC), on the same day, reported an income loss of US$1.6 billion ($2.4 billion) in the second quarter and announced plans to slash 15 per cent of its workforce to reduce costs.

Global rout

Other Asia-Pacific markets also tumbled on Monday.

The Korea Exchange implemented circuit breakers to halt trading in the benchmark Kospi index briefly after it plunged more than eight per cent.

Taiwan's Taiex ended down 8.4 per cent, its worst day ever.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 3.6 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index and China's Shanghai Composite were down 2.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively.

Asian stocks tracked a sharp drop on Wall Street on Friday, where disappointing jobs data added to fears that the US economy is weakening.

The Dow closed 1.5 per cent lower, the S&P 500 lost 1.8 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite declined 2.4 per cent.

The Nasdaq closed in correction territory, or more than 10 per cent off its most recent high on July 10.

CNN's Fear and Greed index, which measures market sentiment, has fallen to a "fear" reading of 27.

Other markets are also showing jitters.

On Friday, oil prices settled at their lowest levels since January.

Brent crude futures and US WTI crude were both down more than three per cent.

Currently hovering around eight-month lows, oil prices may see some stability for the time being, despite threats of retaliatory action in the Middle East, according to Tom Kloza, global head of energy analysis at Oil Price Information Service.

"Beginning with the Hamas action last October 7, we are seeing mostly apathy when it comes to fears about a wider regional war in the Middle East," he said.

"It would probably take an outright attack on Iranian soil to spark any real surge in prices due to geopolitics," Kloza added.

"It will take something quite dramatic to send oil prices scurrying higher and there is a strong desire in Washington to do whatever it takes to keep a lid on gasoline prices," he said.

As far as domestic US gasoline prices, Kloza said a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico may inspire a hike in prices.

Debby has strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane ahead of making landfall in Florida.

Watch every moment, every medal of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live and free on Channel 9 and 9Now. Plus, every event ad-free and in 4K on Stan Sport.

Public transport fares have been slashed to 50 cents across Queensland as cost of living pressures continue to hit household budgets.

The state government's pre-election pledge has seen fares reduced to a 50c flat rate across all zones and modes on the state's Translink network.

That includes all regional urban buses, and bus, train, ferry, tram, and on-demand services in south-east Queensland.

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Airtrain fares have also been reduced, with tickets starting from $10.95.

The lower fares will be in place for six months.

Premier Steven Miles, who joined the morning rush on the first day of the half-year trial, said he had received good feedback on the initiative.

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"Everyone I have spoken to this morning on the train and here at central station has been really positive," Miles told 9News Queensland.

Travellers can use credit cards or smartphones to pay on trains, ferries and trams.

However, cards are required for the bus network due to ongoing delays and a $22 million cost blowout with the smart ticketing program.

"We announced in the budget a slight increase to the budget of the smart ticketing project going forward this is about getting it done, this is about keeping those staff on," Transport Minister Bart Mellish said.

A spokesperson for the state government said it needed to see the results of the trial before making any decision about whether or not 50 cent fares will become permanent.

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