Rice Improves the 2014 Ford F-150

What will they think of next? Ford is now using rice hulls instead of talc to reinforce plastics used in the 2014 Ford F-150’s wiring harnesses. Even better, the rice hulls are farmed in Arkansas.

In an age where artery-clogging McDonald’s French fry oil can power a diesel engine, it’s no surprise some random natural resource can make automotive manufacturing more sustainable. No vehicle sold in America is more important to sustainable manufacturing than the F-Series pickup. As the best-selling passenger vehicle in the United States, even a small nod toward the environment can go a long way when more than 600,000 trucks are produced per year.

Ford says it uses 10 million pounds of recycled cotton annually for sound insulation. Here are some other sustainable materials Ford uses to make F-Series production greener: recycled tire rubber for underbody shields, recycled plastic bottles for wheel wells, soybeans for seat foam, and recycled nylon carpet for valve covers.

Just remember the next time you put something into the recycling bin, it may become an integral part of your next F-150.

via [Truck Trend and Ford]