There’s a little bit of Ontario wheat straw in every 2010 Ford Flex vehicle sold in North America this year. And that straw is cutting down on greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum usage, asserts Ross McKenzie, managing director of the Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research.
Car production using the wheat-straw-reinforced plastic storage bins started at Ford’s Oakville Assembly Complex in November. There are two bins in each Flex and the volume of wheat straw required each year depends on how many bins are made, McKenzie says.