The 2008 Escape is believed to be the first U.S. automotive application of 100 percent post-industrial fabric seating surfaces.
Ford's Color and Materials team worked with a team of designers from Interface Fabrics, Inc., to develop the new recycled-content fabric. Like every new fabric, the Interface fabric was subjected to a battery of tests, including wear and tear, seam strength, color consistency, fade resistance and even odor evaluations looking for that new car smell.
The fabric is produced from 100 percent post-industrial waste – defined as materials intended for retail use that never make it to the consumer. This can be anything from plastic intended for pop bottles to un-dyed polyester fibers that don't make the cut for consumer use. This plastic and polyester is processed, spun into yarn, dyed and woven into seat fabric. Recycling waste otherwise intended for landfills has obvious environmental benefits. The recycled fabric was in some cases less expensive than comparable fabric made from virgin fibers.
Interface Fabrics estimates that Ford's use of post-industrial recycled materials in the 2008 Escape, rather than virgin fibers, could:
- Conserve an estimated 600,000 gallons of water
- Conserve an estimated 1.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide equivalents
- Conserve the equivalent of more than 7 million kilowatt hours of electricity
The new fabric significantly exceeds Ford's internal target of introducing seating fabrics with 25 percent recycled content into production by 2009.
