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In celebration of National STEM Day, Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) announced their partnership with Play Like a Girl!® (PLAG), a nonprofit organization that leverages skills gained from sports to help propel young women into careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Bridgestone and PLAG are teaming up with five professional football franchises—the Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots and Tennessee Titans—for a series of programs during the 2023-2024 season designed to create equitable access to opportunity and develop the next generation of women leaders.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is granting a petition from the Yurok Tribe, the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and the Puyallup Tribe of Indians to address the use of the chemical N-(1,3-Dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine (6PPD) in tires. The chemical 6PPD has been used in motor vehicle tires for more than six decades to make them more durable. It can also be found in other rubber products such as footwear, synthetic turf infill, and playgrounds.

Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) announced it has been named a 2023 “Top Company for Women to Work for in Transportation” for the second straight year by the Women in Trucking Association (WIT). Representatives from Bridgestone will receive the award, along with other recipients, during a ceremony at the WIT Accelerate! Conference and Expo Nov. 5-8 in Dallas, Texas.

The Rubber Division, ACS announces a Call for Abstracts for their Spring Technical Meeting being held April 30 – May 2, 2024 at the Hilton Polaris in Columbus, OH.

Davis-Standard, LLC announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire the Extrusion Technology Group (“ETG”) from entities controlled by the Dutch Investor Nimbus. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions. Davis-Standard has been majority owned by funds affiliated with Gamut Capital Management, L.P. (“Gamut”) since December 2021 and serves the global infrastructure and packaging end-markets with a highly engineered suite of extrusion equipment and converting systems supported by world-class aftermarket spare parts, service, and support for its base of industry critical customers.

Yokohama Tire has expanded its partnership with Porsche Motorsport North America (PMNA) again. The tire maker announced it will be the new Premier Partner of the Porsche Carrera Cup North America in 2024. All classes of cars in this top tier Porsche one-make series will be fitted with Yokohama’s ADVAN® A005 racing slicks and ADVAN® A006 tires for wet conditions. Drivers will compete in Porsche 911 GT3 Cup race cars, all of the most current 992 generation, in the series which features 16 races at eight different circuits.

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company announced that it has completed its largest solar panel installation to date at its Pulandian manufacturing plant in Dalian, China. With more than 29,700 solar panels installed, the panels will power the plant, as well as office and warehouse buildings. The panels are estimated to reduce carbon emissions from purchased electricity by 17,000 metric tons per year over 25 years.

BASF has expanded capacities for ethylene oxide and ethylene oxide derivatives at its Verbund site in Antwerp, Belgium. The investment adds about 400,000 metric tons per year to BASF’s production capacity for the corresponding products.

Bridgestone Americas (Bridgestone) announced a donation of $100,000 to the TechForce Foundation, a national nonprofit that supports students’ technical education and careers in the automotive industry. Funds donated from Bridgestone Retail Operations, a subsidiary of Bridgestone Americas, and the Bridgestone Americas Trust Fund will provide scholarships and grants for students pursuing careers as automotive technicians and supply resources for those seeking jobs post-graduation.

Increasing global rubber demand is adding to pressure on natural forests and driving biodiversity loss, with Southeast Asia, responsible for 90% of global production, bearing the brunt, an international team of researchers warned.

The researchers, in a paper published by Nature, said that previous data suggested rubber was a relatively minor problem when it comes to deforestation, compared with commodities like soy and palm oil.

But high-resolution satellite data, which helped identify more plantations run by smallholders, suggested that forest losses “greatly exceed” previous estimates.