The Yokohama Rubber Group sells products using both natural and chemically composed materials including natural rubber and water. All of these materials are made from resources available on our planet, which are by no means infinite. Therefore, we believe that it is important that we should address the challenges of delivering products that will please customers and society, while minimizing material usage, promoting the sales of recycled products (such as retread tires), and using renewable or recycled materials whenever possible.

The Yokohama Rubber Group has presented its environmental philosophy in the "Yokohama Rubber Basic Environmental Policy" and "Yokohama Rubber Environmental Policy", will work to develop and procure raw materials in a manner that reduces environmental impacts and minimizes material usage in accordance with the "Yokohama Rubber Group Action Guidelines".

Long-term target: 100% sustainable raw materials usage by 2050
Mid-term target: At least 40% renewable/recycled raw material usage by 2030

We promote the development and use of raw materials that have least impact on the environment and society through the following initiatives in order to continue our business.
We also have a system to procure sustainably-available raw materials that will have the lowest environmental and social impacts throughout their life cycles.

We have long been promoting the use of renewable and recycled raw materials as part of our efforts to realize a recycling-oriented circular economy. In addition to the use of recycled rubber, which we have been actively working on, we are now expanding the use of a wider variety of recycled and renewable raw materials, including wires made by melting and reusing scrap iron, silica made from plant-derived and inedible rice husks, and resins derived from natural materials.
In 2024, we used 361,000 tons of renewable and recycled raw materials globally, accounting for 29.7% of our total raw material usage.
Towards realizing a 40% usage rate of renewable and recycled materials by 2030, we explore and utilize innovative recycled and renewable raw materials, while further increasing the use rate of existing recycled and renewable raw materials, with the aim of solving environmental challenges our planet is facing.

The joint initiative by ZEON Corporation and us titled "Development of Manufacturing Technology for Synthetic Rubber Core Chemicals with Carbon Resource Recycling" has been adopted by NEDO as a "Green Innovation Fund Project / Development of Manufacturing Technology for Plastic Raw Materials Using CO2, etc." The Green Innovation Fund Project is a program established by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) to accelerate innovation through structural transformation of energy and industrial sectors and bold investment toward achieving the national goal of "reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050." The program provides a continuous ten-year support to companies and organizations that pursue this goal as a business commitment in the areas from research and development, demonstration to commercial implementation. Our demonstration project aims to establish two advanced technologies to produce butadiene and isoprene, which are key synthetic rubber chemicals based on carbon resource recycling, from renewable carbon resources such as used tires and biomass at high yield rates, with a view to commercially implementing them in the 2030s. This will contribute to the improvement of resource recycling and carbon neutrality in the tire and rubber industries.

We competed in “The Mint400,” an off-road race held in Nevada, USA, from March 6 to 10, 2024.
“The Mint400” is the oldest off-road race in the United States.
It is a grueling race contested across 400 miles (approximately 644 km) of desert terrain at the base of the mountains, attracting around 400 teams from around the world.
We supplied our mud-terrain tire, the GEOLANDAR M/T G003, and a race-specific tire based on this model to over 25 vehicles competing in 10 classes. This tire delivers the performance needed to conquer the grueling off-road race while utilizing renewable and recycled materials.

Following last season, we continued to supply “ADVAN” racing tires (dry and wet) with a 33% renewable and recycled material content as the control tire for the 2024 All-Japan Super Formula Championship.
The supplied dry tires utilize natural rubber, naturally derived compounds such as those generated from oil palm and orange peels, along with recycled steel cord, recycled rubber, and mass-balanced synthetic rubber.
The wet tires increase the natural rubber ratio through changes to components such as the casing, and also utilize naturally derived compounds and recycled steel cord.
Furthermore, for demonstration runs at the “SUPER FORMULA Sports Day” fan event held in conjunction with Rounds 6 and 7 of the All-Japan Super Formula Championship, we supplied prototype racing tires with approximately 60% renewable and recycled material content.
By newly incorporating rice husk silica, plant-derived oils, and circular carbon black into the current racing tire specifications, the renewable and recycled material ratio has been increased to approximately 60%.
In 2025, we will continue to supply ADVAN racing tires, utilizing renewable and recycled materials, as the control tires for the All-Japan Super Formula Championship.
For 2025, we have further increased the proportion of renewable and recycled materials, achieving approximately 46%^※—significantly exceeding our initial 2025 target of 35%. We began supplying these tires starting with the official test held from February 18 to 19.
The season opens with the first race on March 7, with a total of 12 rounds scheduled through November.
While aiming to increase the proportion of renewable and recycled materials, we are also pursuing further improvements in driving performance. Specifically, for wet tires, we have enhanced grip performance, including warm-up performance.
The 2025 supply tires feature a new plant-derived oil for both dry and wet tires.
Furthermore, the wet tires now utilize mass-balanced synthetic rubber, similar to the dry tires, and incorporate newly adopted silica derived from rice husks.
Plant-derived compounds, recycled steel cord, and recycled rubber, which have been used previously, continue to be employed for both dry and wet tires.
Yokohama Rubber will continue to pursue technological development that enhances both the proportion of renewable and recycled materials and driving performance, contributing to the realization of sustainable motorsports.
Furthermore, the supplied tires are produced using renewable energy electricity on the motorsports tire production line at the Mishima Plant.

Similarly, to the previous year, recycled rubber was mainly used for ballast belts with its use rate being 2.3% by weight in FY2024. We are also working to promote the adoption of recycled carbon and rubber raw materials recycled from waste tires and other rubber waste.
The plastic mold material used in the hose manufacturing process, which are thermoplastic resins, are crushed and re-melted for reuse. However, the powder generated in the crushing process used to be discarded as waste. To address this issue, we now have a highly controlled two-stage crushing process, of which first stage yields crushed particles with much larger diameters than fine powder that quickly scatters.
The finer powder generated in the second crushing stage is collected and reused, carrying the traceability information as that of the main crushed resin.