Ford Motor Co. recently became the first automaker to use a material made from recycled plastic bottles in a car's seat fabric. The material, called Repreve, is a polyester fiber made from a blend of recycled materials. Manufactured by Unifi, Inc., the fiber derives from used plastic water bottles and other post-consumer waste, as well as post-industrial manufacturing waste, such as nylon.
The 2012 Ford Focus Electric runs on battery power alone, so it does not require gasoline and produces no carbon dioxide emissions. Each Focus keeps 22 16-ounce plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) water bottles out of landfills by recycling them into the seat fabric's fibers, according to the Repreve Website.
The seat fabric in Ford's new Focus EV is made of fibers from recycled
consumer plastic water bottles and industrial plastic waste.
Source: Ford
"Not only does the use of this fabric in [the] Focus Electric help reduce waste, it also helps to offset the need to produce new raw material from crude oil - a process that consumes precious energy and natural resources," Carol Kordich, lead designer of sustainable materials for Ford, said in a press release.
Ford started using sustainable fabrics in its automobiles in 2009. At that time, the company mandated that its fabric suppliers use at least 25 percent recycled content in their products for all vehicles for model year 2009 and beyond. Since then, 37 different fabrics that meet these requirements have been developed and incorporated into Ford vehicles.
According to Kordich, Ford now mandates that its vehicles with eco-friendly powertrains, such as the Focus, contain fabrics that are 100 percent sustainable. The Repreve material meets this requirement, she says, because it combines pre-consumer industrial fiber waste with post-consumer waste. In addition, use of the fabric cuts energy consumption and CO2 emissions by eliminating the need to use refined crude oil for producing plastic fibers.
Ford is considering using this fabric in its entire line of cars and trucks.
This is pretty cool. I would think that a full-out campaign to use sustainable materials in vehicles, be it car seats, rugs, or whatever, might actually have more impact on reducing carbon footprint than auto makers' EV plans, given the relatively small audience still for those cars. I hope we see more manufacturers follow this route.
If car seats are anything like the fabrics used in clothing, I think you can still maintain a pretty good look and feel. I've seen some pretty amazing things done with recyclable materials in clothing, even household items. High end vehicles typically don't have fabrics--they are usually equipped with leather upholstery. My guess is we'll see some pretty compelling options going forward.
It's amazing what a customer mandate will do. Ford asked its suppliers to come up with post-consumer waste interior materials and its supplier got imaginative. I guess that's the old saw of necessity being the mother of invention. Various supplier mandates from Wal-Mart have also been effective.
@Ann: Good article. However, you might want to clarify that, while Unifi makes both Repreve polyester fiber and Repreve nylon filament, these are two different products. The polyester fiber contains both pre- and post-consumer waste material, while the nylon fiber contains only pre-consumer waste material.
TJ, I can assure you that fabric made from recycled plastic bottles absolutely feels like that made from new or even natural material. There's a chance that you've worn or handled fabric made from recycled plastic. This technology is so advanced that one is hard pressed to tell the difference.
It's good to see that the automotive industry is getting more into recycling, though it has been there for quite some time in one way or another. As one example, think of the auto salvage yard. These have been around for decades. Parts from old or wrecked car and trucks are reused. What isn't reused gets melted down, as in the case of steel and aluminum, and likely ends up in more cars.
As another example of this re-use aspect (and to show my age) back in 1969, when I had been laying carpet for a few years, I had my first glimpse of "rebond" carpet padding. I wondered about it's appearance, that it looked like it was made from various bits of foam, and I was told that's exactly what it was and still is. The majority of this foam (as well as vinyl fabric and other synthetics) came from and still comes from, I'm sure, the auto and furniture industry. And now, since rebond pad is made from the scraps left over in upholstering with car making the major source, we may soon see RE-recycling as the scraps of that redone plastic ends up on floors of houses and commercial buildings.
I agree Justajo about the long standing recycling aspects of the auto industry. The cars don't get melted down until all useable parts have stripped off. Then what's left gets melted down to make new cars. Steel's big argument against composite materials is the ease with which steel can recycled.
Love the new fabric! In the second paragraph, there is a statement asserting that the car, being electric, produces no CO2 emissions. I think we should count the fraction of the emissions of the power plant for the energy used to charge the car. It would be significantly less than an HC fueled car, due to efficiency and averaging across coal/nuclear/wind/solar/hydro, etc. generation. I just think that zero is a bit misleading. Not that I don't like electric cars ... It's the ONLY way I would ever drive anything ultimately powered by wind or nuclear.
Curious that the story states that Ford is mandating cars with "eco-friendly power trains" to use the sustainable materials for car seats and such. Obviously they are trying to make a statement with these cars, but it does lead you to wonder how serious they are about this. If it's limited to eco-friendly cars, not their full portfolio of vehicles, is this more of a marketing/positioning ploy or is it a true sustainability effort?
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