Volvo wants to use 25% recycled plastics in its cars

The company hopes to achieve its goal by 2025.

Volvo has pledged to bump the amount of recycled plastics in its cars to 25% by 2025. The decision falls in line with the company's efforts to eliminate plastic items from its public and media events.

It's difficult but not impossible. Volvo unveiled a XC60-based prototype (pictured) that looks identical to the regular-production model but uses a higher percentage of recycled plastics.

"The special XC60's interior has a tunnel console made from renewable fibers and plastics from discarded fishing nets and maritime ropes. On the floor, the carpet contains fibers made from PET plastic bottles and a recycled cotton mix from clothing manufacturers' offcuts. The seats also use PET fibers from plastic bottles. Used car seats from old Volvo cars were used to create the sound-absorbing material under the car bonnet," the company wrote in a statement.

There's no word yet on how much the car cost to build. Odds are it's not cheap, which would explain why Volvo is giving itself and its suppliers a seven-year timeline to reach the 25-percent threshold.

While governments around the world happily spend millions chasing each gram of CO2, many countries seem wholly uninterested in tackling the planet's plastic problem. There is so much plastic floating in the ocean that scientists coined the term "Great Pacific garbage patch" in the 1980s to describe a continent-sized landfill located in the waters between Hawaii and California.