Volvo Cars, the Swedish luxury car manufacturer has announced an ambitious plan for 2025, and no, it’s not making every car electric or reducing road-accidents. Volvo’s latest commitment is towards environment as the company has announced that at least 25 per cent of the plastics used in every newly launched Volvo car will be made from recycled material.
Volvo Cars also urged auto industry suppliers to work more closely with car makers to develop next generation components that are as sustainable as possible, especially with regards to containing more recycled plastics.
To demonstrate the viability of this ambition, the company has unveiled a specially-built version of its XC60 T8 plug-in hybrid SUV that looks identical to the existing model, but has had several of its plastic components replaced with equivalents containing recycled materials.
“Volvo Cars is committed to minimising its global environmental footprint," said Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO of Volvo Cars. “Environmental care is one of Volvo’s core values and we will continue to find new ways to bring this into our business. This car and our recycled plastics ambition are further examples of that commitment."
The special XC60’s interior has a tunnel console made from renewable fibres and plastics from discarded fishing nets and maritime ropes. On the floor, the carpet contains fibres made from PET plastic bottles and a recycled cotton mix from clothing manufacturers’ offcuts. The seats also use PET fibres from plastic bottles. Used car seats from old Volvo cars were used to create the
sound-absorbing material under the car bonnet.
The recycled-plastics XC60 was revealed at the Ocean Summit during the Gothenburg Volvo Ocean Race stopover. The race’s focus on sustainability centres on a partnership with the United Nations Environment Clean Seas campaign, focussing on the call to action, ‘Turn the Tide on Plastic’.
Last month, Volvo Cars committed to eradicate single-use plastics across all its premises and events by the end of 2019. In 2017, the company announced to electrify all new Volvo cars launched after 2019.
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