Ford Uses 1.2 Billion Recycled Plastic Bottles Per Year To Create Vehicle Parts

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Ford uses around 1.2 billion recycled plastic bottles each year to build vehicle parts. (Photo courtesy of Ford.)

Ford recently revealed that it uses roughly 1.2 billion recycled plastic bottles to build parts for its vehicles each year, which amounts to around 250 bottles per vehicle. The parts include underbody shields for Ford’s cars and sports utility vehicles as well as wheel liners for its F-Series trucks. The plastic is lightweight, yet durable, which makes it ideal for shields, but it can also be used to improve aerodynamics or even dampen outside noise for a quieter cabin, as it does for the 2020 Ford Escape.

The Process

When plastic bottles are recycled, they are broken down into smaller pieces and turned into fiber, which is then combined with other fibers to create a sheet of material. Ford then receives that sheet and is able to turn it into parts for its vehicles. Ford points out that this process makes it so less plastic makes it into landfills, or worse, become part of a major environmental problem like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is “a floating mass of plastic bigger than the size of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean.”

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Ford uses the plastic to make underbody shields for its cars and SUVs and wheel liners for its F-Series trucks, like the F-750 (pictured here). (Photo courtesy of Ford.)

Making A Difference

“The underbody shield is a large part, and for a part that big, if we use solid plastic, it would likely weigh three times as much. We look for the most durable and highest-performing materials to work with to make our parts, and in this case, we are also creating many environmental benefits,” says Ford Design Engineer Thomas Sweder. “Ford is among the leaders when it comes to using recycled materials such as this, and we do it because it makes sense technically and economically as much as it makes sense for the environment. This material meets all of our robust specifications for durability and performance.”

There are thousands of new and used Ford trucks, vans, and SUVs for sale at TruckPaper.com, including a large selection of F-150, F-250, F-350, F-450, F-550, F-650, and F-750 models.

Source: Ford

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