AUTOMOBILES AND RECYCLING
What comes to your mind when you hear PET? Oh no, I’m not talking about that adorable dog or cat (for those who thinks cats are adorable). PET stands for Polyethylene terephthalate. Basically, PET's are a common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in fibers for clothing, containers for liquids and foods, and for thermo-forming for manufacturing, and in combination with glass fiber for engineering resins.
It looks something like this:
I have no idea what that means, but how does all these affect us vehicle and efficiency enthusiasts?
I’m glad you asked!
Plastics are produced and disposed in relatively surplus amounts so it would be great to find beneficial ways of using them.
Well, the Swedish vehicle manufactures, Volvo, has seen this potential and has decided to fill their interior of their luxury compact crossover SUV, Volvo XC40 with PET bottles, quite literally.
Yes, the material of their interior carpets consists of 97% recycled PET bottles, and they are the first vehicle manufacturing company to do such.
At first, one would think this is a highly complicated process, but as you will soon realize, it is very intuitive.
First, with the help of you and I, the plastic is recycled. Never throw away that bottle of coke anyhow again, yes I’m talking to you, yes YOU!
Then, they are sorted, ground into chips and vigorously cleaned.
The chips are then cut into pellets, and by extrusion converted to premium fiber. It is the spun into yarn and then tufted into carpet.
Just like magic! (sprays magical dust)
So next time you get into the interior of a car, realize that we can be a little more efficient, we can do things a little more differently, and we can change the world with innovative materials.
Written By:
Oluwadare Favour
Materials Sub-team Member