Recycled and sustainable materials tally for the 2013 Ford Fusion

30 May 2012

The new 2013 Ford Fusion continues use of recycled and sustainable materials including recycled cotton from jeans, recycled car battery casings, recycled clear plastic bottles and soybeans. Fusions can contain:

• Denim material equivalent to slightly more than two average-sized pairs of blue jeans. The Fusion uses post-industrial, recycled cotton used as sound-absorbing material.

• 38.9 clear plastic 16-ounce recycled bottles. Fusion’s North American cloth seat surfaces are made with 100 percent REPREVE® yarn, which is a hybrid of post-industrial and post-consumer waste (or materials once utilized for industry purposes; and materials used by everyday consumers respectively). Cloth-seat Fusion models contain the equivalent of 38.9 recycled, clear 16-ounce plastic bottles. This fabric meets or exceeds all of Ford’s rigorous durability and performance standards and has a luxurious feel.

  Post-consumer plastic water and soda bottles are collected, chopped, ground, melted and reformulated into chips. These chips are then extruded and textured into fiber. The fibers are then used in the creation of fabric, then dyed, finished and rolled for shipment. Excess fabric from each procedure in the process is recycled back into the system to further eliminate waste.

• About 31,250 soybeans. The foam used in seat cushions, seat backs and head restraints is a soy-based sustainable material. Ford first used soy-based foam in the Ford Mustang in 2007. Today, Ford uses soy foam on every vehicle built in North America. Ford’s use of soy foam has reduced petroleum production by more than 5 million pounds and carbon dioxide emissions by more than 20 million pounds annually.

Every 2013 Fusion also utilizes plastic made from recycled car battery casings. These post-consumer materials were otherwise destined for a landfill. This plastic may be found in fender splash shields and other underbody components. Annually, these applications on the Fusion utilize close to 2 million pounds of recycled plastic.