When it comes to automobiles, sustainability goes beyond a finished vehicle, and it even goes beyond automakers—it involves their dealers, transporters and suppliers. Magna International, a $36 billion USD company, is a Tier 1 supplier and plays a part in everything automotive: software and hardware, electric Jeep and truck axles, even full vehicle assembly. And across all of those areas, Magna is focusing more on the environmental impact of its work.
"Sustainability is important because it aligns with our core values, helps meet customer expectations, ensures regulatory compliance, enhances community engagement, and contributes to long-term business success," Ahmed El Ganzouri, director of sustainability at Magna, told Newsweek.
The company's engineers and designers aren't just looking at how to make cars lighter or how to optimize sheet metal. They're digging into the details and considering every bit of the automobile.
Magna is working with startup company UBQ—based in Tel Aviv, Israel—to replace plastic auto parts with pellets (also called UBQ) made from landfill trash. The plastic substitute uses un-recyclable household waste—including banana peels, chicken bones and pizza boxes, together with baby diapers and mixed plastics—to make a homogeneous thermoplastic.
The process is beneficial on a few fronts, as it not only takes garbage that adds carbon out of the ecosystem, but it also replaces new plastic while creating less carbon.
"The only things separated are the metals. The material is about 50 percent organic, so it has diapers in it and food waste, and it's all coming out of a landfill. And with a very low energy process, it can morph into something that looks like a plastic pellet," Parvinder Walia, director of material science at Magna, told Newsweek.
"We can put it directly into the products and it is carbon negative. It takes it away from landfill so now you don't generate carbon dioxide (CO2). Garbage also generates methane, which is 20- to 25-times worse than CO2. So the beauty is that we don't have to put in a whole lot [of UBQ]. Five percent goes a long way, because we lower our carbon footprint by about 30 percent, because it's negative."
Walia says the recycled plastic does lose some performance, so the company is still working on the process, but if it could get up to a mix that's 20-percent UBQ, the whole piece would be carbon neutral due to the recycled garbage being negative.
"When plastic is recycled, it has to go through a lengthy process. First you must separate it, then clean it. Then it gets ground down. Then it goes to a melt filtration process. And then it gets compounded into a plastic," said Walia.
None of that happens with UBQ. The process transforms heterogeneous waste into a homogeneous bio-based thermoplastic that can be mixed with regular plastic and pressed into any shape. Magna had a front-end module (the plastic piece that carries an automobile's bumper) made from 5-percent UBQ.
"We put 5 percent in there, we've been able to make the full part, which is a huge step forward. And now we run through all the validation testing," said Walia.
This technology could allow Magna to recreate other key car elements with a lighter environmental load. A car's door carrier acts as an internal frame to which door components, such as handles and window regulators, are attached, all housed between the vehicle's exterior sheet metal and interior door panel.
Currently, those carriers are made from 30-percent glass-filled polypropylene (GFPP), which requires a significant amount of energy and resources. The production process involves using a large and energy-intensive injection molding press delivering 2,000 tons of pressure. The material and its production have negative environmental impacts. Polypropylene is an oil-based resin and loses a significant amount of its strength properties when recycled, making it almost useless.
"As a result, a large portion of GFPP ends up in landfills or is incinerated. Globally, approximately 100 million pounds of GFPP carriers are produced annually, providing an opportunity for us to find more sustainable alternatives," Ed Fortin, Magna global product manager, told Newsweek.
Magna's new, more environmentally friendly carrier is made from 70- to 90-percent sustainable materials. Magna has also reduced the weight of the component compared to the traditional version, as well as the manufacturing cost.
Their carrier uses natural fibers like flax, basalt, bamboo and hemp for its body, along with a plant-based polyurethane spray that seals, binds and reinforces. And instead of using a 2,000-ton press to create the component, the sustainable door carrier only needs a 200-ton press.
The first-generation door carrier, which Magna is working on now, is 40-percent lighter than GFPP and has four times the impact resistance, which could make a car safer. The company expects the second generation to produce even better numbers.
For now, it's just a door carrier, but the size of the pieces that are made are only limited by the size of the press. And because they save so much weight, the UBQ pellets could be used for many different automotive parts.
"In addition to the door inserts/carriers, this material could be used for various car parts such as the roof headliner, seatbacks, convertible tops and armrest covers. In larger applications, this material could potentially be used in transport trucks, specifically for wind guides on the roofs and skirts along the trailers," said Fortin.
The project, now about two years old, has seen interest from automakers, Magna said.
And Magna isn't alone. Every Tier 1 supplier is inching their way toward carbon neutrality. These parts will very likely appear on cars in the future, even if there isn't a particular brand name stamped on them.
About the writer
Jake Lingeman is the Managing Editor for the Autos team at Newsweek. He has previously worked for Autoweek, The Detroit ... Read more
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