Palm oil is found in food, cosmetics and cleaning products. Palm oil harvesting commonly uses forced and child labour, and is also environmentally damaging.
Small ways you can help
Exploitative labour practices and child labour are often used to make electronic devices – in the mining of minerals for parts and in product manufacturing.
Each stage of cotton production can use exploitative child labour, from cottonseed cultivation to crop harvesting, thread processing, and clothes manufacturing.
Forced and child labour is often used to mine jewellery’s raw materials, like gold and diamonds, as well as to cut and polish gemstones in jewellery production.
Almost 75 percent of seafood products in Australia are imported from Asia, where trafficking and labour exploitation is rife in fishing and seafood processing.
The coffee industry relies on cheap labour; often farmers don’t receive a decent wage. Coffee growers may receive just three cents from your $3.50 cup of coffee.
Only five percent of chocolate sold today is certified to be free from forced, child or trafficked labour. Children often harvest cocoa in dangerous conditions.
Most of the world’s tea is grown in China, India, Kenya and Sri Lanka. But conditions for tea workers are not always fair and labour exploitation is common.
Look for these symbols when you shop around Australia
Encourage your friends and family to start shopping ethically