Ford looking to use retired currency to make car parts

Ford has been turning to recycled materials to replace a variety of its parts as a way of avoiding having to rely so heavily on petroleum to build its vehicles. So far, Ford uses denim, soybeans and plastic bottles in its vehicles, and retired currency may soon be joining the list of materials.

“Ford has a long history of developing green technologies because it’s the right thing to do from an environmental perspective,” said John Viera, Ford’s global director of Sustainability and Vehicle Environmental matters. “Now, finding alternative sources for materials is becoming imperative as petroleum prices continue to rise and traditional, less sustainable materials become more expensive.

“The potential to reuse some of the country’s paper currency once it has been taken out of circulation is a great example of the kind of research we are doing,” Viera added.

Since roughly 10,000 pounds of money is shredded each day, that’s plenty of material and a lot of waste saved.

– By: Alexandra Koken