Ford Teams with Heinz to Turn Tomatoes into Automotive Parts

With the rise in the cost of fossil fuels, plant-based or recyclable raw materials have become the new darling of the automotive industry. As early as the 2008 North American International Auto Show, Honda showed a car seat made of corn; General Motors used 5% to 10% of raw materials are made of renewable plastic. Today Ford also showed the latest results in the field. They have teamed up with Heinz Group to extract fiber from tomatoes for the manufacture of wiring racks and storage compartments for vehicles.

Ellen Lee, R&D technical engineer at Ford Plastics, stated: “Our goal is to develop new lightweight materials that are strong enough to meet the needs of vehicles, while reducing the impact on the environment.” said Vidhu Nagpal, general manager of Heinz Research and Development, “The annual production is completed. After tomato ketchup, a large amount of tomato dregs will be produced. By further cooperating with Ford, it will turn waste into treasure and provide more degradable plastics.”

Ford already owns eight kinds of biologically-produced automotive production materials, including composites extracted from coconuts and soy foam cushions. Ford is working with Heinz, Coca-Cola, Nike, and Procter & Gamble. The companies said that they intend to produce a 100% plastic extracted from plants for packaging or other purposes to replace the packaging plastics currently produced from petroleum.