PHOTO COURTESY OF YAMAHA RIGHTWATERS
Yamaha Rightwaters has a goal to return 10,000 pounds of Polyethylene and Polypropylene plastics back into base materials before the end of the calendar year. The program will serve as a pilot for an ongoing national program that would help reduce plastic waste in our waterways.
“Water drives every Yamaha Rightwaters program,” says Martin Peters of the Yamaha U.S. Marine Business Unit. “We created Yamaha Rightwaters to take on issues that affect the clean water upon which we all depend. Polyethylene and Polypropylene make up a large part of the plastic litter in our oceans, affecting the marine life that lives there. We see this effort to keep plastics out of our oceans and our landfills, and a step to assure sustainable, healthy stocks of fish in our rivers and oceans.”
In partnership with Nexus Fuels and Tommy Nobis Enterprises, the reverse logistics program will return protective covers from select boatbuilders and retail dealers, as well as two of Yamaha’s boat production facilities, to Tommy Nobis, who will separate the recyclable plastics and then ship them to Nexus for processing into raw materials to be used for other products.
“When we saw the Nexus pyrolysis process at work last year, we were excited and knew this was the best possible solution for these materials, some of which are difficult to recycle with other methods because they are a mixture of the two materials, both Polyethylene and Polypropylene,” explains Peters. “Nexus is the only operation that has proven end-to-end they can economically take Yamaha Marine’s waste plastics and convert them into virgin circular polymer with partners like Chevron Phillips and Shell Chemical.”
“The Yamaha Rightwaters sustainability efforts are pushing the marine industry into a new realm of conservation, and the Nexus team is optimistic and enthusiastic about this plastics recycling initiative,” adds Jean Jordan of Nexus Fuels. “It’s our hope that together, we can validate this pilot program and expand it in the near future.”
For more information, visit yamahaboats.com/yamaha-rightwaters/.
