Zenbird Editorial TeamKobe City and Upcycle Association signed a business collaboration agreement on 1 September to upcycle discarded broadleaf tree branches and leaves into textile products, which creates a local circular economy model for forest resources within the municipality.
Kobe City comprises 90 percent broadleaf forests. Maintaining these environments requires regular thinning, but the resulting branches and leaves are typically left on the forest floor because broadleaf wood offers fewer commercial applications than coniferous wood.
Upcycle Association tackles this problem by converting the forestry waste into paper yarn. Because broadleaf fibres are short and produce unstable quality on their own, the organisation combines them with discarded paper collected from citizens at local resource recovery stations.
This collaboration is part of the TSUMUGI project, an effort that transforms difficult to recycle materials into paper yarn. The resulting material forms the KOBE WOOD T-shirt, consisting of 70 percent cotton and 30 percent Japanese paper yarn known as washi.
The agreement spans until March 2028, with Kobe City supplying the forest biomass and Upcycle managing the manufacturing and public relations.
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