Ford reusing plastic bottles for carpets
An estimated 8 262 metric tons of recycled plastic bottles have been used in the Ford EcoSport since its global launch in 2012 to make the carpets fitted to the interior.
In an effort to reduce plastic waste, Ford is using plastic bottles to create yarn which is woven in materials used in the carpets of the Ford EcoSport. Ford has been incorporating recycled plastics into its manufacturing processes for more than 20 years, one of the first Ford vehicles to use recycled plastics were the Mondeo.
In order to produce the yarn, the 500-millilitre plastic bottles and their caps are shredded into small flakes. The flakes are melted down in 260°C of heat and then formed into fibres the width of human hair. By spinning multiple fibres together, a durable plastic yarn is created from which carpets can be woven.
“Consumers have a hugely increased awareness of the harm that simply discarding plastic can do – but we have long been on a mission to increase the proportion of recycled and renewable materials that are used in every new car we make,” Tony Weatherhead, materials engineer, Ford Motor Company.
Each EcoSport use an estimated 470 plastic bottles for its carpeting. While Europe only recycles 30 per cent of its plastic waste, South Africa only manages 16 per cent.
“In the research that we have done, in the whale strandings that we have looked at and the seal entanglements that we have seen, it is clear there is just too much plastic in the environment. We’ve had dolphins with plastic cups in their throats, and so many seals and dolphins wrapped in fishing line,” Dr Simon Elwen, Founder and Principal Scientist at Sea Search
