Yokohama Rubber joins ‘Fry to Fly Project’ in Japan

Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. announced Sept. 30 that as part of its measures to mitigate climate change, it recently began participating in the Fry to Fly Project, which pursues the decarbonization of the airline industry by recycling domestic resources.

Led by the JGC Holdings Corp., this project involves collecting used cooking oil (UCO) generated by companies and households and using it for the domestic production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to power airplanes.

As of July 31, 143 companies, municipalities and organizations were involved in the project.

Yokohama Rubber is participating in the project by providing UCO from the employee cafeterias at its headquarters and factory in Hiratsuka, Japan, 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.

According to Yokohama Rubber, the alignment between the project’s purpose and the declaration on “contribution to a decarbonized and recycling-oriented society” in Yokohama Rubber’s important environmental goals 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.

SAF is an aviation fuel produced using materials such as biomass, UCO and other alternatives to fossil fuels.

The Japanese government has set a target for SAF to account for 10 percent of all aviation fuel by 2030.