Your New Car Is Made Of Old Carpet, Milk Jugs, and Ripped Jeans

I just found out how much of my 09 Cobalt is from recycled material. I knew it had jeans, but the rest of this is new to me.


http://www.greencarreports.com/blog/1036799_your-new-car-is-made-of-old-carpet-milk-jugs-and-ripped-jeans

By John Voelcker Senior Editor October 19th, 2009

When you think of a brand-new, gleaming, 2010 model car rolling out of your driveway, what materials come to mind?

Steel, chrome, soft-touch interior plastics, maybe even supple leather upholstery?





Well, how about some old carpets, ground-up milk cartons, and shredded, faded, raggedy blue jeans?

California recycles waste tires into new roads

California recycles waste tires into new roads
Enlarge Photo

Recycled materials: feedstock

Those materials, and more, are among the increasing amount of recycled materials that find their way into new cars these days. And the Detroit News has written a fascinating description on how the industry has--very quietly--become a lot greener in its materials choices.

As always, the motivation is money as well as eco-awareness. Suppliers are increasingly looking to new sources of raw materials, and especially during the oil price spike two years ago, recycled goods were cheaper than virgin plastics.

Plastic jugs and old tires

Almost 10 percent of the high-density polyethylene from milk jugs, detergent bottles, and other plastic containers now goes into automotive parts, according to the Association of Post-Consumer Plastics Recyclers.

Ford, for example, reuses those plastics in body shields and fender liners, along with recycled tires and the casings from old 12-Volt batteries (which are recycled at a rate of roughly 98 percent).

Soda bottles + yarn waste = seat fabric

FULL story at link.

K&R

not to mention that it's about 24 years old...

and probably a good bit of the metal, since Korea isn't famed for its iron mines.

This was still an eye opener, thanks.

Now my 4 chipmunk mini car is even greener than I thought.