Hiratsuka, Japan—The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that as part of its measures to mitigate climate change, it began participating in the “Fry to Fly Project,” which pursues the decarbonization of the airline industry by recycling domestic resources, in August 2024. Led by the JGC Holdings Corporation, this project involves collecting waste cooking oil generated by companies and households and using it for the domestic production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to power airplanes. As of July 31, 2024, 143 companies, municipalities, and organizations were involved in the project.

Yokohama Rubber is participating in the project by providing waste cooking oil from the employee cafeterias at its headquarters and factory in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, and plans to expand these activities to include other domestic facilities in the future. This is the first time for a company in the rubber products manufacturing industry to take part in the project.

The alignment between the project’s purpose and the declaration on “contribution to a decarbonized and recycling-oriented society” in Yokohama Rubber’s “materiality” (important issues) was one of the reasons for the company’s decision to join the project. Another one was Yokohama Rubber’s close connection to the airline industry through the development and sale of such products as drinking water tanks and cabin interior components for commercial airplanes.

Under the sustainability slogan “Caring for the Future”, Yokohama Rubber is creating shared value by addressing social issues through its business activities.

SAF is an aviation fuel produced using materials such as biomass, waste cooking oil, and other alternatives to fossil fuels. It is said that SAF can reduce the volume of greenhouse gas emissions generated throughout the lifecycle of such raw materials from the production/collection phase until the fuel is manufactured and combusted by approximately 80% compared with conventional aviation fuel. The Japanese government has set a target for SAF to account for 10% of all aviation fuel by fiscal 2030.