News Release

Yokohama Rubber U.S. Subsidiary Becomes a Zero Landfill Operation

2015.November.24

  • Management relation
  • Sustainability relation

Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd., announced today that Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Virginia LLC (YTMV) - a US subsidiary that manufactures passenger car and light truck tires in Salem, Virginia - has become a zero landfill operation as of September 2015.

According to Neil Dalton, Yokohama Corporation of North America director of environmental health and safety, “All waste generated at YTMV now goes to non-landfill options, such as recycling, reuse or energy recovery.”

To successfully achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status, YTMV has strategically put in processes and practices that deliberately and significantly reduce waste. “In order to be a zero landfill plant, it was important to understand as a company that you can’t throw anything away because there simply is no ‘away,’” said Dalton.

As of the start of 2015, YTMV had reduced its landfill waste output to 2% of all waste generated, and the facility reached the zero level in September. As noted by YTMV President Tetsuro (Tex) Murakami, “Our efforts to fulfill our social corporate responsibility of green sustainability begin with our core business of developing products and operating plants that minimize environmental impact.”

The zero landfill initiative is part of Yokohama Rubber’s ongoing global environmental mandate, set forth in the Company’s “medium-term management plan: Grand Design 100,” which sets standards for harmonizing company-wide operations - from manufacturing to product design - with the environment.

YTMV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Yokohama Rubber’s U.S. subsidiary Yokohama Tire Corporation, was established as an independent company through the spinoff of the parent company’s Salem plant in 2014. In March, YTMV received the 2015 Environmental Warrior Award from the Virginia Water Environment Association (VWEA). The award was bestowed upon the facility as part of VWEA’s 2015 Industrial Waste and Pretreatment Environmental Excellence Awards Program. In 2014, YTMV was appointed into the Virginia Environmental Excellence Program (VEEP) with an E4 status, the highest status rating awarded by the program. YTMV also received ISO 14001 certification for environmental management systems in 2007 and has continued to promote environmental protection and conservation in all its activities.

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Recycling station at YTMV

Recycling station at YTMV