Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles - Arhive
Five recycled materials used in new cars Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
Car manufacturers are increasingly using recycled materials in their cars. Today we take a look at five. Well, four and one that didn’t happen…
Car manufacturers have generally been a bit slow off the mark in using recycled materials in their products, but that is quickly changing, with an increasing number starting to re-purpose existing stuff into new cars.
Today we take a look at five recycled things used in new cars.
Plastic bottles
Volvo uses recycled PET plastics to make the carpet in the XC40. We only hope they used Fanta bottles for this one.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
When Volvo launched the XC40 it became the first vehicle manufacturer to use carpets made from 97 per cent recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles.
Polyethylene terephthalate is a thermoplastic polyester that is used in fibres for clothing, containers for liquids and foods and thermoforming for manufacturing. If you are drinking a Coke from a plastic bottle as you read this, then you are holding some.
Volvo says the process is very efficient because the surface material is also a self-carrying structure, meaning that less of it is needed to produce a carpet.
Reclaimed wood
The Karma Revero used to be called the Fisker Karma. Even the car has been recycled, just like the wood it uses inside.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
The Fisker Karma was a premium range-extended EV that launched at the same time as the Tesla Model S, which meant it never really had a chance and everything fell over after a few years of production.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
It did take the whole eco-friendly thing further than the Tesla, however, and only used “reclaimed” wood in its interior.
White oak from the bottom of Lake Michigan, “rescued wood” from trees killed by California wildfires and trees that have fallen naturally were all and now even the Karma itself has been recycled – after Fisker’s collapse, the rights and toolings were bought by a Chinese company and it is now being sold as the Karma Revero
Polyester
That awful Hawaiian shirt you had in 1984 could well be part of a BMW i3 now.
While Volvo were the first to do carpets, BMW takes the recycled polyester thing further.
Up to 100 per cent of the upholstery in an i3 (the percentage varies depending on options) is made from recycled polyester, with 34 per cent PET content.
Recycled and raw renewable materials make up 25 per cent of the i3’s interior, while an equal amount of the external plastics also come from recycled sources.
At the other end of its life, BMW say that a whopping 95 per cent of materials used in the i3 can be recycled. We just have to make the effort to actually do it…
Aluminium
Jaguar’s first all-aluminium (body and monocoque) car is probably being re-used in current Jaaaags.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
Did you know that recycling aluminium uses up to 95 per cent less energy than its primary production? Jaguar Land Rover did, so that is why the company developed a “closed-loop” recycling system that takes aluminium from scrapped cars, essentially making new cars from old ones.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
The process saw JLR reclaim more than 75,000 tonnes of aluminium scrap and reuse it in its production process over 2016 and 2017.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
Which means there is every chance you brand new Jaguar features a bit of classic Jaaaag, as the company has used aluminium since as far back as 1949 (cylinder heads on the XK6 engine), although it is far more likely to be from a 2002 XJ, which was the company’s first full-aluminium monocoque car.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
Whale foreskins
The mad Estonians behind Dartz wanted to recycle whale foreskins into leather upholstery. Whales weren’t keen and neither were most people.
Thoroughly mad Estonian armoured SUV manufacturer (and fan of unnecessarily using “Z”s instead of “S”s), Dartz Motorz Company, courted controversy a few years back when it announced its flagship Prombron model would feature leather upholstery made from whale foreskins.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
Yes, really.
Now this would only count as recycling if the whales didn’t want their foreskins anymore – which, presumably, isn’t the case – but that didn’t stop the company attempting to make it sound like that when the inevitable outrage ensued.Five recycled materials new cars recycled PET bottles
“We have no any ideas to kill the whale or something like that,” the company said in a mangled-English press release, leaving an air of mystery as to how they expected to get their foreskins then…
– Stuff
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