Two years ago, in something like a quirky, B2B Craigslist hookup, Heinz, Ford, Coca-Cola, Nike, and Procter & Gamble found one another. Since then, the five companies have been exploring ways to replace conventional, petrochemical-based plastic with materials derived completely from plant matter.
This week, Ford announced that it and Heinz have made a good bit of progress, as they’ve worked to turn the latter’s tomato waste into the former’s bioplastics. Ford says that tomato skins, for example, may ultimately be used to create plastic for wiring brackets, panels, or storage bins. (Still no word on the seeds and stems, which, as any college student can tell you, are problematic.)
Ellen Lee, a plastics research technical specialist with the automaker, says that “Our goal is to develop a strong, lightweight material that meets our vehicle requirements, while at the same time reducing our overall environmental impact.”
Which is great, but it avoids any mention of economic imperatives. Despite the hazards involved in producing and employing plastics derived from petrochemicals, companies keep doing so because it’s cheap. Recycling old materials and creating new ones from waste takes time and considerably more money — at least in the initial phases. That’s a deterrent to managers and shareholders focused on the bottom line.
There are also limits to the safety and effectiveness of these new materials. Plant-derived products may be fine for building storage bins, but no one’s found a way to use them as substitutes for sheetmetal. (Though that hasn’t kept some from trying.) Shifting to aluminum car bodies can lessen the environmental impact of auto manufacturing, since aluminum is easily recycled, but the dream of a fully recycled or bio-based car is a long way off.
And sadly, future technology isn’t necessarily much cleaner. As eco-friendly as battery electric and fuel cell vehicles may seem, they still require a lot of resources — not just mined metals that create car batteries, but also electricity that’s often generated from “dirty” sources.
Like global warming, education, the obesity epidemic, and countless other contemporary problems, greening cars can’t be done in one fell swoop. It’s death – or in this case, success – by a thousand cuts. Kudos to Ford and Heinz for taking a stab at it.
