SALEM (WSLS 10) - Zero is important at Yokohama Tire Manufacturing Virginia, LLC, especially when it comes to waste. The Salem, Virginia facility has become the latest Yokohama manufacturing plant to be a zero landfill operation.
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."
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To successfully achieve zero-waste-to-landfill status, YTMV had strategically put in processes and practices that deliberately and significantly reduced 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 in a written statement.
By the beginning of 2015, the landfill waste output from YTMV was down to two percent of all waste generated, and as of September, the facility reached the zero level.
Officials said the zero landfill initiative is part of an ongoing global environmental mandate from The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. (YRC), YTMV's parent company in Japan. It stems from YRC's ‘Grand Design 100 Plan (GD100), which sets standards for Yokohama to harmonize its company-wide operations in everything from manufacturing to product design with the environment.