May brings more good news for sustainability minded fleets and government agencies! The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company offers its first waste haul tires made with renewable soy. The announcement comes on the heels of Goodyear rolling out soy-biobased tires for city transit buses.
The popular Endurance™ WHA is the company’s first waste haul tire to replace a portion of the petroleum-based materials with soy. “Goodyear’s roll out of their first soy-biobased tires for waste haul as well as city buses is a breakthrough for U.S. soybean growers and the cities that depend on high-performing and sustainable tires,” said USB Chair Ralph Lott, a soybean farmer from Seneca Falls, New York. “City and other fleet leaders have told us they want soy in tires for such heavy equipment. These big tires are another exciting way to deliver sustainable U.S. Soy to more lives, every day.”
“Producing the new Endurance WHA tire lineup with a sustainable soybean oil compound will help waste haul fleets pursue their sustainability goals while delivering the long hours to removal that the Endurance WHA tire is known for,” said Jessica Julian, commercial product marketing manager Goodyear North America. “In each new Endurance WHA tire, soybean oil will replace almost 16 liquid ounces of free-flowing petroleum oil—almost as much as a 16- ounce red plastic party cup. When you multiply that by a moderately-sized regional waste haul fleet of around 500 trucks, it could decrease petroleum-based products by the equivalent of almost 15 barrels of oil”
Endurance WHA Tire models made with soybean oil are now available for order and will head into production in Q3 of 2022.
The Endurance WHA tire is designed to keep waste haul fleets on the road longer with a dual-layer tread compound that helps optimize treadwear. Add to that, rolling resistance and a deep 24/32″ skid depth for long tread life in waste haul applications. Additionally, the Endurance WHA comes with optional built-in DuraSeal Technology® that instantly seals tread punctures to help fleets reduce downtime, costly repairs and premature removal of a tire.
In addition to Endurance WHA, Goodyear offers the following tires with soy.
Assurance WeatherReady™ line introduced in 2017. The Assurance WeatherReady is Goodyear’s Grand Touring All-Season tire designed for the drivers of family sedans, coupes, crossovers, SUVs and minivans.
Assurance ComfortDrive ™ all-season tire offers comfort, performance and sustainability with ComfortFlex Technology, designed for smoother transitions and impact absorption.
Eagle Enforcer All Weather™ police tire that provides year-round, responsive performance for police vehicles that handle demanding operating conditions.
Eagle Exhilarate™ line aimed at the ultra-high-performance market-drivers. Introduced in 2019, the Eagle Exhilarate is designed to offer better traction and handling for faster acceleration and more precise control, especially in wet weather.
Metro Miler G152 and G652 for transit buses Both tire models also feature technology designed to resist sidewall damage, enhance toughness and provide long tread life. Reinforced shoulders and steel sidewalls help deliver long casing life.
Because of the potential for biobased products to create new markets for soybeans, U.S. soybean farmers have invested millions of dollars to research, test and promote biobased products. Much of this work was done through the United Soybean Board, which is composed of 78 U.S. soybean farmers appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to invest soybean checkoff funds. As stipulated in the Soybean Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Services has oversight responsibilities for the soybean checkoff.