Every year Ford diverts 20,000 tonnes of rubbish from going to landfill thanks to a pioneering campaign from Ford’s technical centre at Dunton.

It’s hard to beleive but over 300 parts for the Ford Focus ^[1] are made from recycled materials such as unwanted jeans, empty bottles, old carpets and even old CD’s.

All this happens whilst ensuring that there is no compromise in quality, performance or durability.

The Dunton team are working on a bio-degradable plastic which is derived from sugar in corn, sugarbeet and cane. Tests have shown that it can degrade naturally in 90-100 days rather than the 1000 years it takes for petroleum based plastic to degrade.

Ford see uses for this new material (polyactic acid) in such things as carpeting, floor mats, upholstery and even moulded trim pieces.