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Simon Leufstedt

Ford will use 25 recycled plastic bottles in the carpeting in every new Ford Escape

Ford proudly boast that "the next-generation Ford Escape will use 25 recycled 20-ounce plastic bottles in the carpeting of each Escape built, which could translate to over 4 million recycled bottles annually". See image below:

Now I am no car expert, far from it actually, but this sounds like bullsh*t marketing. Isn't the Ford Escape a really huge american SUV with an equally huge fuel usage? I can imagine how the thinking went at the PR department over at Ford. "Uhm we have this SUV that we've slapped a hybrid label on. It's still huge and it's fuel economy is still crap. But how can we market it as a green option? I know! Let's recycle some plastic bottles and use them as carpets in the cars."

Sure, one could say that corporations are slow to change and that any progress, no matter how small or big, towards sustainability is good. Or that a carpet out of recycled bottle is "cool".

But a carpet made out of recycled bottles is not cool. It might have been cool 15 years ago. But today it's just a sad example of how far we have left to go. And a carpet made out of recyclable bottles makes no real difference when you consider all the other resources needed for this SUV to be constructed and maintained.

I completely understand that corporations rather want to stay with status quo, because that's what making them money today, instead of taking costly risks. But that's why we can't afford to wait for them to change on their own. We need to implement strong environmental standards and climate laws directed at manufacturers and producers. Corporations such as Ford shouldn't be allowed to construct and sell gas-guzzling SUVs.

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