Ford is turning McDonald's coffee waste into headlights

福特将麦当劳的咖啡废料变为车前灯

译锐翻译    2019-12-5    12:30 a.m.

Ford has tapped McDonald's to help it turn coffee parts into car parts.

福特利用麦当劳将咖啡废料变为汽车部件。

Starting this year, Ford is incorporating coffee chaff — coffee bean skin that comes off during the roasting process — into the plastic headlamp housing used in some cars. It's asked McDonald's, which doesn't roast its own coffee, to connect it with suppliers.

从今年年初起，福特就开始将咖啡糠-咖啡豆在烘焙过程中所脱落的糠皮应用于部分车辆的塑料车前灯外壳中。福特已经向麦当劳（其并非自己烘焙咖啡豆）提出为其和咖啡豆供应商牵线搭桥。

Chaff：谷壳；糠the outer covering of the seeds of grain such as wheat , which is separated from the grain before it is eaten

In recent years, as consumers become more concerned about plastic pollution and carbon emissions, companies have made sweeping commitments to reduce their impacts on the environment. They've also been developing innovative, sustainable materials to build consumer products.

近些年来，随着消费者越来越关注塑料污染以及碳排放，众公司也开始大力致力于减少其对环境的影响。这些公司已经开发出生产消费产品所需要的创新且可持续的材料。

Traditionally, Ford uses plastic and talc to make its headlamp housing, explained Debbie Miewelski, senior technical leader of materials sustainability for Ford. The coffee version is more sustainable because it's lighter and doesn't use the talc which, as a mineral, isn't renewable.

福特传统的做法是利用塑料和云母来制作车前灯外壳，Debbie Miewelski，福特材料可持续性资深技术主管，解释道。咖啡材料做出的车灯外壳由于更轻质而且不使用云母（一种不可再生的矿物质），因此更具可持续性。

Talc：云母

Coffee chaff, on the other hand, is widely available, Miewelski said, and much of it goes to waste. Eventually, Ford hopes to incorporate the material into more cars and use it for more parts.

从另一方面来看，咖啡糠的来源也非常广泛，Miewelski表示。而且绝大多数咖啡糠都成为了废料。最后，福特希望能够将该材料应用于更多的汽车并将其用于更多的部件当中。

Ford decided to work with coffee chaff a few years ago. But it's been experimenting with organic materials for over a decade.

几年前，福特就决定采用咖啡糠。但是，福特从几十年前就开始利用有机材料进行实验。

The auto company has been using soy-based foam in its cushions since 2011. It also uses waste from wheat, coconut, tomato and other plants in its cars in order to help meet some of its sustainability goals, which include using more renewable materials.

从2011年开始，福特开始在座垫中使用大豆泡沫。此外，其还在汽车中使用小麦、椰子、番茄以及其他植物废料以满足部分可持续性目标。这种目标中包括利用更多可再生的材料。

"If you came to our lab, it looks somewhere between a landfill and a farm," Miewelski said. Her team decided to examine the potential of coffee because the beverage is so ubiquitous.

Miewelski表示：“如果你来我们实验室的话，你会感觉实验室更像是介于垃圾填埋地和农场之间的一个场所”。由于咖啡几乎无处不在，因此她所带领的团队决定了解咖啡的潜在可能性。

Once the Ford team figured out how coffee chaff could be used to build car parts, it reached out to McDonald's because of the restaurant chain's scale and its comparable sustainability goals, Miewelski said. Like Ford, McDonald's also wants to incorporate renewable and recycled materials into its products.

当福特团队弄明白如何将咖啡糠用于制作汽车零部件后，它就开始联系麦当劳。联络麦当劳是因为其具有庞大的联锁餐厅规模以及类似的可持续发展目标。和福特一样，麦当劳也希望将可再生以及可再循环利用的材料融于其产品中。

The partnership between Ford (F) and McDonald's (MCD) is an example of how brands with distinct sustainability initiatives can work together.

福特和麦当劳之间合作的例子表明具有可持续发展目标的品牌可以共同携手合作。

McDonald's recently achieved its goal of sourcing all of its US coffee sustainably, one year ahead of schedule, and is also working with competitors to develop more environmentally friendly coffee cups. When Ford approached it about the coffee chaff product a few years ago, the company was able to consider another way to make its coffee greener, said Ian Olson, senior director of global sustainability at McDonald's.

麦当劳最近已经提前一年实现了美国所有咖啡可持续采购的目标。此外，麦当劳还与竞争对手共同合作以开发更加环保的咖啡杯。当福特在几年前开始联系麦当劳并洽谈咖啡糠时，公司正在考虑另一种使咖啡更加环保的方法，麦当劳全球可持续发展资深总监Ian Olson表示。

"We've conventionally thought of collaborations as within the food industry," Olson said. The Ford partnership can help McDonald's see "what kind of larger impacts are possible," when it works with a company in another sector.

“我们当时考虑的是在食品行业内部寻求合作”，Olson表示。与福特进行合作能够帮助麦当劳看到，当与来自另一个行业的公司合作时，“可能会产生更大的影响”。

"This is just scratching the surface of trying to understand what's possible," Olson said.

Olson表示，“这只是后续无限可能的一个开端”。

文章来源：CNN, 编辑：Susan