Electric vehicle industries are moving forth their goals in enviromental issues by embracing eco-friendly materials. Using recycled plastics and biodegradable components will be instrumental in succeeding in these enviromental targets as it will reduce emissions at the same time as helping companies to less depend on limited resources. The benefits of this long-lasting saviour extend in creating more enviromental sustainability.

Both inside and outside a typical car, plastics help to decrease vehicle weight and fuel consumption, while making production more efficient and less expensive. New green materials have the potential for cost savings.

Biodegradable Composites

While they present a significant opportunity to reduce carbon emissions, reduce material and energy use, and reduce overall environmental impact through the lifecycle of the vehicle, there are a number of challenges for the widespread use sustainable materials that need to be addressed.

Last year, a student team from the Dutch university TU/ecomotive revealed Lina, a car made of totally biodegradable materials including sugar-beet-derived fibres. The car used flax fibre-reinforced plastic composite material with polypropylene matrix made from sugar-beet processing.

Today, plant-derived prepregs have garnered much enthusiasm for replacement of the conventional ones, owing to the combined benefits of cost saving and reduced carbon footprints. Yet, the successful development of fully bio-derived composites necessitates, among other things, a profound understanding of their performance metrics, how they interact with conventional manufacturing methods, processing options available for different classes of materials, and the willingness to timeously collaborate and conduct research so as to ultimately arrive at the destination of a ‘carbon-friendly’ automotive industry.

Biodegradable Plastics

Many of automotive production’s most harmful ingredients can be replaced with earth-friendlier materials, such as biodegradable plastics, which are environmentally far better than components that break down into carbon dioxide and other toxic residues. Biodegradable plastics are even more advantageous if the materials used are derived from sustainable resource pools, rather than expensive or dirty fossil resources.

Under fairly specific conditions, biodegradable plastics will degrade into water, carbon dioxide and biomass within a few months or years. Biodegradable plastics occur in various polymer forms and can be made from renewable raw materials such as plant carbohydrates or microorganisms, or from petroleum-derived chemicals.

Generically, there are bio-based plastics such as cellulose acetate (CA), starch-containing polymer compounds, and PLA and PBAT, which readily exist on the market providing lightweighting, formability, energy efficiency and emissions reductions.

However, if used for autoparts, they need to be tested to prove their inherent biodegradability. The standards used for biodegradability generally require a high surface area, optimal levels of moisture and temperature, and a controlled environment – all of which are often lacking in less controlled natural environments, which makes it difficult to know whether a plastic will biodegrade over a reasonable timespan.

Biodegradable Rubber

With the world’s automotive industry becoming more and more focus on greener technologies, some car manufacturers have even stepped up their efforts to incorporate green materials in car production. Such eco-friendly materials involve less environmental impact and less production cost as well. From this point of view, besides meeting the growing needs from society towards building more environmental friendly cars compared with the old models, car manufacturers can also acquire benefits like cutting down fuel cost and get more operational efficiency in response to growing number of government regulations.

This can be done by using recycled plastics, rubber and metals. These green materials are more sustainable than traditional ones because they help reduce the waste that could end in landfills. Moreover, sustainable materials help conserve natural resources and save energy, since producing them requires fewer non-renewable resources than processing raw materials. Additionally, using lightweight materials green-ways vehicles to perform better than conventional cars, making them both safer and more efficient.

Natural fibres and bio-based plastics are also being used to make cars more sustainable, with reduced emissions of chemicals. Hemp and flax fibres as interior upholstery might provide insulation as well as reduced noise levels, while being ecologically sound; at end of life they can also be composted as part of nature.

Biodegradable Paper

As of late, the automobile manufacturers have been changing their priorities. Now more than ever, car production is moving towards e-friendly specs, meeting clean environment needs and high technology level. To achieve this, the right balance needs to be found between strict performance and safety rules and eco-friendliness.

Furthermore, proper use of biodegradable paper helps minimise the environmental impact of waste. If consumers reduce the amount of organic material sent to landfills that, as previously mentioned, emit large amounts of methane gas that contributes to climate change, and if biodegradable paper is not dumped in the ocean, it can minimise the amount of waste found in marine ecosystems.

Biodegradable papers can also reinforce sustainable forestry methods, since paper made from these trees is often certified by independent forest management organisations that regulate ecologically sustainable harvesting and replanting practices in order to prevent deforestation and biodiversity loss reducing carbon emissions as in conventional paper products production.