Ford drivers can now enjoy their morning cup of coffee and drive it too. That’s right, Ford and McDonalds partnered together to find a way to turn coffee chaff, the skin on the coffee bean, into car parts.
Both McDonald’s and Ford have adopted green platforms in a push to help the environment. Ford plans to invest a total of $11 billion through 2022 into electric vehicles and McDonald’s aims to source 100 percent of its guest packaging from renewable, recycled, or certified sources by 2025. Both companies decided to combine efforts and join their research teams in order to repurpose millions pounds of coffee chaff that goes to waste each year.
“McDonald’s commitment to innovation was impressive to us and matched our own forward-thinking vision and action for sustainability,” said Debbie Mielewski, Ford senior technical leader, sustainability and emerging materials research team. “This has been a priority for Ford for over 20 years, and this is an example of jump starting the closed-loop economy, where different industries work together and exchange materials that otherwise would be side or waste products.”
Ford and McDonald’s researchers learned that heating coffee chaff to a higher temperature with low oxygen levels and adding plastic and other additives to the mix created a malleable substance that could be molded into various shapes. The end result created a product that was ideal for car parts such as headlamp housings. This new coffee chaff mixture resulted in components that were 20 percent lighter than the currently implemented pieces and required 25 percent less energy in the molding process.
“Like McDonald’s, Ford is committed to minimizing waste and we’re always looking for innovative ways to further that goal,” said Ian Olson, senior director, global sustainability, McDonald’s. “By finding a way to use coffee chaff as a resource, we are elevating how companies together can increase participation in the closed-loop economy.”
Other companies that were involved in the project included Varroc Lighting Systems, which supplied the headlamps, and Competitive Green Technologies, the processor of the coffee chaff. McDonald’s and Ford will continue their collaborative efforts to further reduce waste and create repurposed materials. McDonald’s is also expected to supply a large portion of their North American coffee chaffee to Ford for the car parts.
In addition to using recyclable and repurposed materials for parts and materials to build their vehicles, Ford also has a large line-up of hybrid vehicles and announced their first all-electric car, the Mustang Mach-E. If you’re interested in reducing your carbon footprint with your next vehicle, come on down Garnet Ford in West Chester today!