Recycled plastics for Volvo Cars

In an announcement, the premium car manufacturers Volvo said they are targeting to have a minimum of 25% percent of recycled plastics used in each of their cars due to be launched from 2025. The company has also recommended the usage of recycled plastics for manufacturing sustainable components. It has requested the suppliers to work closely with the manufacturers in this regard.

Volvo cars has revealed a new special version of its plug-in hybrid SUV XC60 T8, wherein many of the components made of plastic have been replaced by corresponding components made from recycled materials. This look- a-like version of the original has been specifically unveiled to exhibit the feasibility of the company’s ambition.

Plastics taken from discarded marine ropes and fishing nets along with renewable fibers have been used to make the tunnel console in the interior of this special version of XC60.  Under the bonnet sound absorption materials are made from old Volvo car seats, while the PET fibres from the old plastic bottles have been utilized to make the new car seats. A combination of recycled offcut material from cloth makers and PET fibre from plastic bottles has been used for the carpets laid on the car’s floor.

According to the Volvo Cars’ Senior Vice President for Global Procurement, Martina Bucchauser, Volvo Cars needs more recycled plastics to achieve their sustainability goal.  So they are inviting more suppliers and partners to join their existing group of progressive suppliers to bring in recycled plastics and help make sustainable solutions and thereby assisting the company realize its aim.

It was during the Gothenburg Volvo Ocean Race stopover at the Ocean Summit that the XC60 made partly from recycled plastics was unveiled. The Volvo Ocean Race focusing on sustainability is aimed towards intensifying the United Nation’s Clean Seas – Turn the Tide on Plastics campaign.

According to the Head of UN Environment, Erik Solheim, to turn the tide on plastic, reuse and recycling of plastics is needed on a massive scale. By using recycled plastics for their new cars, Volvo has not only demonstrated the feasibility of solving the problem through design and innovation, it has also set a new standard. Erik hopes that the other car manufacturers would also soon follow suit.

Volvo Cars’ ambition to use recycled plastics for its new fleet of premium cars is not just most revolutionary and first of its kind in the industry, it also shows the company’s dedication to lower its impact on the environment. As another step towards that, the company in the previous month announced to completely eliminate the usage of single-use plastic by the end of the year 2019, across all its facilities as well as in any events.

Post-2019, all the new Volvo cars manufactured would be electric according to the industry-leading commitment the company publicized in the year 2017. Reinforcing this, the company stated that by the year 2025, it plans to have half of its worldwide sales to be made from electric cars.

By the year 2025, the company intends to become climate-neutral n terms of operations. The first success towards this goal came in the month of January of the current year as Skövde, Sweden’s engine plant was the company’s foremost facility to become CO2 neutral.