These days, you'll find many automakers are incorporating sustainable materials into their vehicles. Ford, Hyundai, Kia and Genesis come to mind among others.
Honda, too, is using eco-friendly materials and sourcing them in a unique way. The automaker says it is recycling shirts worn by Honda Associates - literally the shirts off their backs, so to speak.
The program is part of Honda's recycling initiative that takes uniforms worn by associates at its U.S. manufacturing and R&D facilities, and turns them into sound-absorbing insulation that's used in both Honda and Acura vehicles.
Currently, Honda says uniforms from both types of facilities in Alabama, Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio are recycled and reused in five different insulator parts on all nine Honda and four Acura models made in North America. The automaker says the program diverts roughly 45,000 pounds of uniforms from reaching landfills each month. Overall, Honda says that more than 380,000 pounds of uniforms have been recycled since the program launched at the end of 2021. The automaker says it plans to expand the uniform recycling program to other facilities in North America.
Honda says its goal is to use 100% sustainable materials by 2050.
"To achieve our Triple Zero goal of 100% sustainable material use, we need to take every possible opportunity to recycle materials at end of life for reuse in our products, thereby minimizing our utilization of virgin materials," said Negar Gilsinger, manager of Resource Circulation for American Honda Motor Co., Inc. "By maximizing end-of-life material recycling, we are giving our uniforms a second life in Honda and Acura vehicles."
First, the uniforms are cleaned and evaluated. If they're not damaged, they're sent back to associates to wear. Otherwise, they're designated for Honda or Acura vehicles, baled and sent to a company called Leigh Fibers that specializes in reprocessing and custom-blending fiber-based materials. There, sippers and buttons are removed and uniforms get shredded into a material that meets the required fiber grade for use as vehicle insulators. The material is then tested to make sure it meets all requirements and then the newly reprocessed fibers are repackaged and delivered to Honda's insulation supplier, UGN.
UGN blends, consolidates and trims the fibers into material that is molded into insulation and returned to Honda auto manufacturing plants for new vehicle production. Honda says its uniform recycling program marks the first time Honda and UGN are using post-consumer textile waste for sustainable insulation material.
"It is part of UGN's history and culture to maximize recycled content in our parts, reduce landfill by recycling our own by-products, and promote circular, mono-material technologies that enable end-of-life vehicle recycling," said Pranav Singh, director of Purchasing & Packaging for UGN Automotive. "Reusing Honda uniforms contributes to these efforts by increasing the amount of recycled materials available for insulators and opens the door to other post-consumer textile waste projects."
Honda's not just recycling shirts. It's used other sustainable materials in its vehicles as well. Like soybean-based foam for vehicle headrests and recycled plastic water bottles and recycled Honda car bumpers for wheel liners. It also used plant-based material for the seat fabric in the 2019 Acura RDX and Honda Clarity Plug-in Hybrid. It's also used fibers from denim in vehicle insulation/absorption material. And way, way back, in 2003, it used processed volcanic rocks for the roof liner in the 2003 Honda Element.
The automaker says that in collaboration with UGN, Honda annually reuses approximately 2,800 tons of recycled post-industrial textile waste – equivalent to 5.6 million pairs of jeans – and 3,000 tons of post-consumer PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles – equivalent to 6 million water bottles – for vehicle sound-absorbing insulation.
Photo Credit: Honda.