Old jeans help make new Focus eco-friendly

Old clothes turn up in plenty of places — the hamper, the bottom of a closet, behind the washing machine. They’re also found in the next-generation Ford Focus, albeit in different and more useful forms.

The 2012 Focus uses these cottons from recycled clothing in areas such as carpet backing and sound-absorption materials for interior quietness. Using environmentally friendly materials, including recycled cotton, is one part of Ford’s overall green strategy.

“Ford is continually looking for greener alternatives,” said Carrie Majeske, product sustainability manager. “One of our key goals is to use more recycled or renewable materials without compromising performance or durability. Recycled content is a way to divert waste from landfills and reduce the impact of mining virgin material.”

Ford’s “reduce, reuse and recycle” commitment is part of the company’s broader global sustainability strategy to reduce its environmental footprint while at the same time accelerating the development of advanced, fuel-efficient vehicle technologies around the world.

Ford vehicles continue to become more eco-friendly through the creative use of renewable and recycled materials. For instance, one of the clothing materials used in the next-generation Focus is post-industrial cotton that comes from recycled blue jeans.

The amount of cotton comes out to roughly two pairs of average-sized American jeans, based on pounds of cotton used per yard of denim and the yards of denim used to make a pair of jeans.

The new Focus is the result of a global product development program bringing together Ford’s best engineers and designers from around the world. The high-tech, fuel-efficient Focus will be manufactured in Ford plants in Asia, Europe and North America.

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