Grading the Automakers

According to the American Plastics Council, the average vehicle contains 250 pounds of plastic, which accounts for about 12 percent of a vehicle by weight, as noted in "Plastic on the Outside," a feature that appeared in the August 2006 issue of Automotive Engineering International. While this figure is already large, it stands to increase in coming years as new applications for polymers emerge, according to the article. Of growing concern, a significant proportion of plastics are used inside the vehicle. Today, nearly 50 percent of vehicle interiors are made of polymers, Automotive Engineering International reports. This causes concern since many potentially toxic chemical additives are put into plastics. These additives release or leach from the plastics and contaminate the air and dust inside vehicles.

Also of concern, vehicle sales are increasing in the United States, with a 2 percent increase in sales since 2003, according to Automotive News. This will eventually lead to an increased flow of plastics entering the waste stream at the end of vehicle life. Many of the plastics currently used are not easily recycled, thus they will likely end up in landfills or incinerators, where their chemical additives will contaminate land, water and air. If they happen to be recycled, they can pose health risks to workers at recycling facilities who handle the plastic scraps.

With vehicle sales and plastics usage on the rise, the use of sustainable plastics is of increasing importance. Plastics need to be designed using bio-based, recyclable materials that are healthy and safe for workers, vehicle occupants and the environment.

This report card is the second in a series of automotive plastics report cards. In it, we take a look at automakers’ policies and practices regarding plastics and determine how each company measures up.

BIO-BASED MATERIALS. We evaluated each automaker based on Web access, resource use policies, chemicals policies and their goals and objectives related to the use of bio-based materials, use of recyclable plastics, use of recycled plastics, halogen reduction – PVC (polyvinyl chloride), halogen reduction – BFRs (brominated flame retardants), cabin air quality improvement, end-of-life-vehicle recycling, plastics end-of-life management, as well as their reporting progress related to these goals and objectives, and then calculated an overall grade point average (GPA).

The most significant progress in the past year was made in three areas: biobased materials, interior air quality and PVC reduction.

Bio-based materials are increasingly being used in a range of product lines. They can lead to reduced petroleum use, reduced life-cycle carbon emissions and, in some cases, reduced weight and increased recyclability of polymers. The auto industry has made a number of breakthroughs regarding these materials.

Toyota has pioneered development of an "Eco Plastic" made from sugar cane or corn that is used in the spare tire cover and floor mats of the Raum. The company has built a pilot plant to manufacture the eco plastic in Japan, which so far is producing 1,000 tons of the material per year, according to Toyota. The company has set a measurable goals to increase its use of the material to 20 million tons by 2020 and to have 15 percent of its resin parts made from renewable or recycled materials by 2010.

Ford has been a leader in a number of bio-material research activities. The company recently announced a breakthrough in development of soy-based foam for seating, according to a Ford press release. The new formulation replaces 40 percent of the standard petroleum-based polyol with a soy-derived alternative.

POLYVINYL CHLORIDE. While overall progress in phasing out PVC in the auto industry has been slow, we have found some positive examples of where companies are moving to more recyclable, less toxic alternatives. Honda is the leader in this area. In its North American Environmental Report, Honda makes a specific commitment "to apply PVC-free applications across its entire North American product line wherever feasible," according to American Honda Motors Co.’s "2005 North American Environmental Report." Honda has acknowledged that auto shredder residue creates dioxin when burned in incinerators and thus has developed a strategy to reduce overall chlorine content of all vehicles, according to a letter to the Ecology Center from the company’s Senior Manager, Environmental and Energy Affairs Product Regulatory Office, David Raney. The company’s "2006 Environmental Annual Report" notes that Honda reduced the chlorine content to 1 percet or lower in ASR for all new models released in 2005 (excluding sub-compact cars).

Ford has not made any recent claims to reduce PVC usage. However, it is likely that Ford has nearly or completely eliminated PVC from its vehicles that are TÜV Rheinland Group certified to be allergy free. The commitment to certify more vehicles suggests that it will continue to reduce PVC in additional vehicles lines.

RECOMMENDATIONS. Automakers have shown that they have the ability to design vehicles using more preferable plastics. But for these industry leaders, there is still room to improve.

The following are a set of recommendations to make further progress toward the use of safer, cleaner plastics in automobiles:

We recommend that automakers adopt the following quantitative goals for sustainable plastics by 2015:

And by 2025: