Toronto, Ontario – Reduce, reuse, recycle, is Kia’s new strategy for their future EVs, with the South Korean company planning to build using recycled ocean plastic.
Through a longstanding partnership with the international non-profit organization that clears plastic waste from oceans, The Ocean Cleanup, Kia plans to recycle and reuse 55 tonnes of plastic from the Pacific Ocean.
The plastic will specifically be taken from the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP), which is the world’s largest accumulation of floating waste. It covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometres and is located between Hawaii and California.
The move is part of the automaker’s sustainability strategy and was formed in 2020. It was developed with the goal of shifting the company’s focus towards electric vehicle development and sustainable mobility solutions.
In a press statement made by Charles Ryu, senior vice-president and head of the Global Brand & CX Division at Kia Corp.,he noted how, “the record catch of plastics brought to shore by The Ocean Cleanup for recycling is tangible proof of how technology can deliver sustainable solutions at scale.”
“Initiatives such as this one perfectly align with Kia’s transition to a sustainable mobility solutions provider and our Plan S [Sustainability] strategy [developed in 2020], through which we embrace the needs of our customers and the protection of our environment by acting as a responsible corporate citizen.”
The Ocean Cleanup will collect the plastic using their System 002 extraction technology which utilizes a containment boom system meant to drag across the water for garbage.
Afterwards, Kia states that the collected plastic will undergo a recycling process to convert it into materials able to be used for the interiors of their future, fully electric vehicles.
Kia plans to use up to 20 percent recycled plastic in its EVs by 2030 and hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.
In some of their current vehicles–such as its new Concept EV9–the company has begun to employ recycling strategies by incorporating repurposed fishing nets into the vehicles flooring.
Ultimately, reducing the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is just one strategy in helping to ensure a sustainable future.
