Yokohama's Salem plant now a zero landfill waste unit

Yokohama's tyre manufacturing plant in Salem has become the tyre maker's latest zero landfill operation plant. Neil Dalton, Director of Environmental Health and Safety, Yokohama Corp. North America, said, "All waste generated at YTMV now goes to non-landfill options such as recycling, reuse or energy recovery."

According to the company, they have strategically put in processes and practices that deliberately and significantly reduce waste. Dalton added, "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."

This facility in Salem reached at zero level landfill waste in September itself. In the starting of this year, landfill output was already down to 2 per cent of all waste generated.

Tetsuro Murakami, president of Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Virginia, "Our efforts to fulfill our corporate social responsibility of green sustainability begins with our core business of developing products and operating plants that minimize environmental impact."

The zero landfill initiative of Yokohama originated from the company's 'Grand Design 100 Plan' (GD100) that sets standards for the company to harmonize its company-wide operations with the environment. The parent company Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. started a global environment mandate and zero landfill initiative is a part of it.

Recently, in March, YTMV received Environmental Warrior Award from Virginia Water Environmental Association (VWEA). This award was a part of VWEA's 2015 Industrial Waste and Pretreatment Environmental Excellence Awards Program.

Before this, YTMV was appointed into Virginia Environmental Excellence Program with E4 status in 2014. E4 is the highest rating awarded by the program. In 2007, YTMV received ISO 14001 certification for environmental management system.

[caption id="attachment_1906" align="alignnone" width="1024"] How a tyre landfill looks[/caption]