What comes around goes around: Your discarded plastic water bottle may soon become part of your next car.
Automakers are racing to make their vehicles more sustainable -- the industry's favorite buzzword -- by turning environmentally unfriendly materials into seat cushions, floors, door panels and dashboard trims. First it was reclaimed wood. Then. Now, plastic waste from the ocean, rice hulls, flaxseeds and agave are transforming the manufacturing process.
Ford acquires the recycled plastic from its supplier DSM, which collects the nets from fishermen who are paid to return them. The nets are harvested, sorted, washed and dried before they're cut into small pellets and injection-molded into harness clips, which weigh about 5 grams and guide wires that power side-curtain airbags in the Bronco Sport.
"This is not just a passing trend. Sustainability is here to stay," Moody told ABC News."Environmental regulations are likely to become more strict in the years to come [and it's] another incentive for automakers to start looking for a solution right now.
"Audi is committed to sustainable materials and we're implementing these changes in new vehicles," Spencer Reeder, director of government affairs at Audi, told ABC News."We have very high standards and fully vet these products." "If the material performs just as well, consumers will be happy," she noted, adding,"You'd be hard-pressed to find a consumer who is against sustainable materials."Volvo, the Swedish automaker, said it's addressing all areas of sustainability -- not just carbon emissions -- in its vehicles.
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