Ford Wants to Recycle Your Old Jeans In Their Cars

The 2012 edition of the Ford Focus might just be made with your old pants. The car maker will use recycled cotton from blue jeans for new interiors, Forbes reports:

"Each new Ford Focus will have roughly two pairs of average-sized American jeans in it. The recycled blue jeans will be used as both sound absorption material and carpet backing. The recycled cotton is just one of several recycled products used in Ford vehicles. The company already uses recycled resin in the underbody of the vehicle and recycled yarn on seat covers."

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Ford also uses planet-friendly products like natural-fiber plastic for the dashboard area and soy-foam for seat cushions. (Fun aside on soy car parts: bunnies in parking lots like to eat the soy wires. Not good for maintenance.)

This is all part of a push from American automakers to shift more sales to smaller cars away from the traditional profit centers of SUVs. As this happens environmental stats become a bigger part of the sales pitch. Miles per gallon is just one measure of a car's eco-impact so expect to see more stories like this of cleaner and recycled components in American cars in coming years—and lots more bragging about it, too.

(Via Transportation Nation, and AltTransport)

Image (cc) via Flickr user CoreForce