Waste Car Luca is Made Almost Entirely out of Recycled Materials

Oct 12, 2020 by Priya Chauhan in Green Initiatives

Aiming to reduce the burden of waste on landfills, a team of students at Eindhoven University of Technology have created a car that is made almost entirely out of waste. The sporty-looking, “waste car” called Luca has a base of flax and recycled plastic, most of which was recovered from oceans.

Waste Car Luca is Made Almost Entirely out of Recycled Materials

Waste car Luca | Image: Bart van Overbeeke

The edifice, interior, windows and finish were also made of recycled materials, including PET bottles, ABS and household waste. Waste car Luca, which was officially unveiled by the Dutch physician and ESA astronaut André Kuipers, is a compact car with two electric motors in the rear wheels. It can easily reach a top speed of 90 kilometers per hour. The car is extremely light-weight, as it weighs only 360 kg without batteries. The car only requires 60 kilos of batteries as compared to hundred of kilos for other electric cars in the market.

The vehicle’s outer frame is made of recycled ABS, a hard plastic used in many consumer toys and kitchen appliances. Instead of using paint, the makers used a yellow-colored film to provide the yellow finish to the car, which can be removed and reused.

While the tinted side and rear windows are made from recycled materials, the seat cushions are made from coconut hair and horsehair with fabric casing made from recycled PET. The list of waste-derived car parts even includes residual materials from Luca’s own production process.

The car is made almost entirely out of recycled materials | Image: Bart van Overbeeke

Through this sustainable model of a car, the designer team aimed to depict that waste can be used as a valuable material, even in complex applications such as a car. The team hopes that their project will make people aware of their consumption behavior and thus contribute to the development of a circular economy.

Electric vehicles have become a rage in past couple of years, owing to their eco-friendly functionality. More iterations of these vehicles, combined with recycled construction materials can truly revolutionize the face of transportation industry, along with the health of the planet.