Finding Sustainability in Surprising Places

According to the United Nations Environment Programme, 5 billion metric tons of agricultural biomass waste is produced annually. A by-product of agriculture, the supply of these waste materials is abundant and often are underutilized. The materials can be acquired for a relatively low cost, and can help manufacturers like us, offset the underused glass fibers and talc to produce more sustainable, lightweight products.

At Ford, we began researching the use of sustainable materials for our vehicles in 2000. As a result, Ford vehicles now boast eight sustainable-based materials, including soy foam, castor oil, wheat straw, kenaf fiber, cellulose, wood, coconut fiber and rice hull. Today, we’re proud to be adding the agave plant to this list via an exciting new partnership with the Jose Cuervo® Tequila company. Together, we’re exploring the use of agave by-product from the tequila production process to create more sustainable bioplastics for next generation Ford vehicles.

Agave takes up to 10 years to grow large enough to be harvested for tequila. Once harvested, the heart of the plant is roasted, pressed, then fermented before extracting its juices for distillation. This process produces hundreds of pounds of agave waste fibers daily. A portion of the remaining fibers are used as compost for farming. Local artisans will often use the material for crafts and agave paper, but much of the material goes unused and is ultimately disposed of.