Some 30 members of Extinction Rebellion and Attac took action against "fast fashion" at Place de la Monnaie, near rue Neuve in Brussels city centre on Saturday afternoon.
The activists made a long chain out of second-hand clothes and sang songs criticising the fashion industry. "The public should be made aware of human rights violations, environmental degradation, and the other disastrous consequences of overconsumption and lack of standards in the fashion industry," they said.
"According to the UN Environment Programme, the fashion industry is the world's second-largest consumer of fresh water and responsible for 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions," said a spokesperson for the activists.
"That is almost twice as much as aviation and shipping combined. Today's fashion market is dominated by big fast-fashion companies that produce their clothes in countries with little or no environmental standards and where workers are not paid fairly."
'Never-ending cycle of consumption'
The activists underlined that the sales period is "a terrible period" in that respect, with stores emptying their racks only to fill them again with new clothes – "a never-ending cycle of consumption, and of poor-quality clothes."
With the demonstration, they want to encourage people to think about what they buy so that they buy less and buy better-quality clothes, which may be a bit more expensive but also all more sustainable.
"Many people take their clothes to a recycling container or second-hand shops after a while, but second-hand shops are flooded and do not get rid of those clothes either," the spokesperson said. "Or the clothes are of such poor quality that they cannot be sold on. And what does not get sold in the shops ends up in gigantic rubbish dumps in Africa, or is burned there en masse. This has to stop."
