You’ve probably heard that a Mediterranean diet of fresh fish, vegetables and olive oil is good for your health. But now Ford says something similar might also benefit both your next car and the planet.
No, it’s not suggesting filling your sump with extra-virgin olive oil instead of 5w40, but Ford does think that the olive trees that grow the fruit used to make that oil can also play a role in making cars more environmentally friendly. It’s been investigating replacing conventional plastic trim pieces with parts made from a mix of shredded olive trees and recycled plastic waste.
Ford says that the job of pruning olive trees every year produces 7 million tons of green waste and engineers in Cologne have found that using that material in trim parts can make them both lighter and give them a smaller carbon footprint. Tree material for the Compolive project was sourced from the olive groves of Andalusia in Spain, which provides 10 percent of the world’s olive oil. The prototype parts were made of a 40:60 ratio of olive tree fibers and recycled polypropylene plastic, which was heated and injection molded to the desired shape.
Related: Fancy A Porsche 911 Interior Made From Coffee And Lentils?
This isn’t Ford’s first project looking into sustainable materials, a trend that has taken the car industry by storm in the last few years. It already uses soybean-based foam for some seats and headrests, recycled yoghurt cups in the Mustang Mach-E frunk insert, and recycled ocean plastic for the wiring harness clips in the Bronco Sport.
