Mission of Establishment

The Association was established to prevent littering of beverage containers (cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles) and to promote environmental beautification

Projects

Projects to achieve the mission are:

• 1. Educate and promote environmental beautification activities
• 2. Research and study environmental beautification
• 3. Collect and analyze data and information for environmental beautification
• 4. Cooperate and collaborate with public organizations for environmental beautification

Members

The Association consists of the following six industry associations:

• ・ Japan Soft Drink Association
• ・ Japan Tomato Processors Association
• ・ Japan Fruit Juice Association
• ・ Japan Coffee Beverage Association
• ・ Japan Coca-Cola Association
• ・ Brewers Association of Japan

The beverage makers which are members of the above six industry associations provide funds through each association and attend our regional activities.

Activities

• 1. Promote and sponsor the Adopt-program activities
  • (1) Collect and analyze data for the Adopt-program activities and provide the results

    　　We conduct surveys with local governments performing Adopt-program activities to get a better understanding of their involvement in Japan and disclose the results.
    We also exchange information among the staff in local governments, and share the information regarding issues and solutions on a Q&A basis.

  • (2) Grants to organizations performing Adopt-program activities

    　　We provide grants to organizations starting Adopt-program activities or enhancing/expanding Adopt-program activities for the expense on clean-up activities or litter prevention activities.
    These grants aim to spread Adopt-program activities through promotion.
    Organizations receiving grants are introduced on the website, and contribute to promote Adopt-program activities and the organization itself.

  • (3) Research and study

    　　Our association researches and studies the impact of Adopt-program activities and the circumstances of Adopt-program activities in the United States, and publishes the results.
    We also visit unique local governments and organizations driving Adopt-program activities, and introduce their activities.

• 2. Litter prevention activities
  • (1) Litter prevention campaign

    　　We campaign for litter prevention through promoting “No Littering Mark”. We also provide the survey results of litter prevention.

  • (2) Award schools with excellent environmental education

    　　We aim to pass on environmental beautification to the next generation by honoring excellent environmental education.
    This award was launched in 2000. The Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries support the award and each ministry gives its own Minister Award. Also, the support from each prefecture helps the award to continue.
    Schools given the Award influence the community and surrounding areas. Through this recognition, the schools work hard with community on the beautification problem.

  • (3) Production and distribution of an environmental guidebook

    　　Our association produces a guidebook for school teachers to support environmental beautification education for middle/upper grades at elementary schools. It supports education on using “litter” as a resource and “environment beautification”.
    We hope for this guidebook to be “starter of class”, “hint for teachers”, “leaflet to children” and “material for community environmental beautification activities”.

  • (4) Website for children on environmentalbeautification support= “Machi-bika kids(environment beautification kids)”

    　　This site is for higher grades in elementary schools to enjoy learning “the importance of environment beautification”, “know-how of recycling”, with the theme of “environment beautification” and “littering”.
    Currently, this website has a lot of visitors.

• 3.Public relations
  • (1)Our activities are published on the home page.
  • (2)We publish the brochure “Food-environment cooperation news BIEBA NEWS” and introduce our activities.
  • (3)We attend environmental events held by local governments and introduce our activities
  • (4)We support environmental events held by local governments providing our goods.
  • (5)We visit communities to explain Adopt-program activities or our activities upon request from local governments or volunteer groups.
  • (6)We offer interactive information exchange on Facebook.
• 4.Regional Liaison Meetings (RLM)

  　　Regional Liaison Meetings are organized to support our activities at local levels.
  RLM are primarily organized in each prefecture (in some cases one in several prefectures), and each RLM consists of staff from beverage makers that have a branch office, sales office or factory in the area to support our association.
  Members of RLM coordinate school awards or local environmental events with local governments, citizens’ groups, and the news media.

History

Our Association is a successor to the “Beverage Industry Environment Beautification Conference” launched in 1973 to handle the litter of empty can issue being a social problem in early 1970s.
We promoted various beautification campaigns and adopted “No Littering Mark” in 1981.
In 1982, the Beverage Industry Environment Beautification Association was established to improve the implementation of activities.
Since then, we have been tailoring projects to fit the needs at the time, such as distributing posters and holding essay contest or symposiums.
We started promoting Adopt-program activities in 1998, awarding schools with excellent environmental education in 2000 and granting Adopt-program activities in 2012, and we are enhancing our projects.
In 2011, we became a Public Interest Incorporated Association with the reform of the public-interest corporations system, and now our activities are acknowledged as “for the public good”.

Marks

We have been using the “No Littering Mark” since 1981 to promote prevention of litter of beverage containers such as cans, glass bottles or plastic bottles.
The mark is labeled on vending machines and waste bins to sort and collect cans, and is well-known in Japan.
We also manage the recycling marks which are required by law to be displayed on beverage containers such as aluminum cans and steel cans.