In an attempt to reduce waste and make their products more sustainable, Motherson has teamed up with Israeli start-up, UBQ Materials, to produce carbon-neutral moulded parts from UBQ’s polymer compound – converted from household waste.

The team is working on determining its fit for automotive use in interior parts and are testing to ensure it is odour-free and suitable for its intended use. The next step will be to produce an automotive exterior part using this compound and getting it to serial production in the future.

UBQ has developed a revolutionary solution that converts Residual Municipal Solid Waste (RMSW) that is destined for landfills into patented UBQ material. Through a proprietary process, the mixed waste stream – containing organic elements like food waste, garden trimmings, paper, cardboard, diapers, dirty plastics, and packaging materials – is converted into an entirely homogeneous composite material (UBQ) that can be utilised by industry.

According to the Israeli start-up, by converting organic household waste into sustainable bio-based materials, UBQ is a novel climate positive material that can be used for the manufacturing of thousands of products (including vehicle interiors). It is clean, sustainable and cost-effective. And it is also recyclable, which makes it the greenest thermoplastic material on the planet.

Daimler already testing UBQ thermoplastic
On January 21, 2020, Daimler AG, the first auto major to partner with UBQ, had announced that it would be testing UBQ’s thermoplastic material in the production of automotive parts. At the time, the German carmaker had said that the first tests on using ‘artificial materials’ from UBQ, made from previously non-recyclable materials, in vehicles or for packaging were already underway.