Inga Wehmeyer News Today

Engineers at Ford Motor Co. are developing ways to turn branches, twigs and leaves that are discarded during olive harvesting into sustainable auto parts.

Ford has produced injection-molded plastic parts containing ground-up olive branches to test feasibility.

Ford ventures into sustainable automotive innovation by using discarded olive tree waste — branches, twigs, and leaves — for manufacturing auto parts. This initiative, part of the Compolive project, aims to replace plastics with biocomposites, contributing to environmental sustainability and the circular economy.

Olive trees bear a fruit that is consumed all over the world, as snacks, oil and tapenades. Now, Ford has explored using branches, twigs and leaves that are discarded during harvest for more sustainable auto parts. 

Copyright © ChangeInc 2023 As a snack or processed in oil and tapenades: the fruit of olive trees has many uses. Not so the branches, twigs and leaves of the tree. Although they turn out to be very...

Ford engineers have found the Olive parts are both ‘robust’ and ‘durable’, potentially paving the way for mass use in electric cars.

The company used a materials simulator to find a mix that is 40 percent olive waste and 60 percent plastic.