Meiji yogurt cups collected at 13 Yokohama AEON stores, to return as goods at Meiji's Expo site

• Meiji and TOPPAN announced on 30 September 2026 that 13 AEON-group stores in Yokohama will collect yogurt paper cups from Thursday 1 October to Monday 30 November, during store hours.
• Only the four 400 g Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt LB81 products count: Plain, Plain Fat 0, Calcium and Iron, and Plain HOME MADE STORY. Wash the cup at home and put it in the dedicated box in the store.
• The cups will be turned into original goods and sold at Meiji Group’s ORAGA VILLAGE (Mirai no Furusato, “hometown of the future”) at GREEN×EXPO 2027. The type of goods and prices are not given.
• The 13 stores are spread over nine wards: two each in Kohoku, Totsuka, Kanazawa and Seya, one each in Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Nishi, Naka and Hodogaya.
• Yogurt cups usually cannot go out with waste paper because of their waterproof coating, the companies say. They have trialled collection in the Kansai region since 2025, and this is their first scheme in the Kanto region.

Our take

This is a way for people in Yokohama to supply material for goods on sale at the Expo, from their own kitchens, six months before it opens.

Two of the 13 stores are in Seya Ward, where the venue is. Mitsukyo and Seya stations in that ward are two of the four stations with shuttle buses to the venue during the Expo. The box where the cups go in and the site where the goods come out are in the same ward.

What the goods will be is still unknown. Collection ends on 30 November, and we think the goods will be shown after that. The Association’s list describes ORAGA VILLAGE only as introducing the satoyama countryside where Meiji Group’s business began, and how yogurt cups fit that theme is another thing to wait for.

Tips for visitors

• Only the 400 g Meiji Bulgaria Yogurt LB81 range is accepted. Wash the cup at home first.
• The stores (names as in the release): AEON Komaoka (Tsurumi), AEON STYLE Higashi-Kanagawa (Kanagawa), AEON FOOD STYLE Yokohama Nishiguchi on the 1st floor of CeeU Yokohama near Yokohama Station’s west exit (Nishi), AEON Honmoku (Naka), AEON STYLE Tennocho (Hodogaya), AEON Yokohama Shin-Yoshida and AEON STYLE Yokohama Takata (Kohoku), AEON STYLE Totsuka and Higashi-Totsuka (Totsuka), AEON Kanazawa Seaside and Kanazawa-Hakkei (Kanazawa), AEON STYLE Yokohama Seya and Mitsukyo (Seya). The English store names are ours.
• For what else is on at the Village exhibits, see our guide to every pavilion.