December 16, 2019

Ford is Making Car Parts from Used Coffee Beans

 ford coffee headlights mcdonalds

 

 It seems like somewhat of a rarity for two major companies in America to partner in order to help eliminate waste, but Ford and Mcdonald's are two huge American companies and have done just that.  Besides Ford wanting to have 100 percent recycled and sustainable plastic use by 2035, they have made steps in a more sustainable direction.  They have started using McDonalds coffee chaff to make certain car parts. The first question you may have is what is coffee chaff? Well, the chaff is the unused dried skin that comes off coffee beans during the roasting process.  McDonalds produces more than 62 million pounds of coffee chaff yearly.  That 62 million pounds used to go straight to landfills as McDonalds has no use for it.  That is until Ford found out that they could use this coffee chaff in combination with other plastics in a molding process to create parts such as headlights and car battery covers (since the coffee chaff is able to withstand high heat). The chaff, despite being relatively light, meets all durability and performance requirements.  It's amazing to see Ford utilizing all this chaff that would otherwise be shipped to a landfill as waste. Wouldn't it be amazing if other companies could partner together and see what waste could be utilized by each other?  I'm sure there are many byproducts that could be repurposed!  Check out the video below to see the process of repurposing this coffee chaff and stay tuned for more sustainable news!