On April 25, 2025, T-REX Project consortium members Anubhuti Bhatnagar and Elina Lewe from Aalto University had the opportunity to give a keynote speech at Fashion Revolution’s  “Waste to Wear” symposium in Tokyo. The event  brought together a wide range of voices from across Japan’s fashion and textile sectors to talk about one of the biggest challenges we face: how to stop end-of-use clothing from becoming waste.

In Japan, around 1,200 tons of clothing  is thrown away every day. The symposium tackled this issue from multiple angles exploring the issues driving high levels of textiles waste, what the environmental and social impacts are, and most importantly, what we can do about it. There were panel discussions, presentations, and a lot of thoughtful dialogue amongst attendees including citizens , policymakers, industry professionals, and students.

The keynote speech highlighted insights from the T-REX project, with a focus on how citizen engagement can shift everyday behaviours and support more circular systems. The speakers emphasised how progress really happens when citizens, industry, academia, and public institutions work together.

While in Tokyo, our consortium members also met with the Japanese Ministry of the Environment, which is running a taskforce to raise awareness about textile waste among consumers. 

Findings from the citizen engagement stream of the project will be shared within the T-REX Project Blueprint, to be released in May 2025.