Torqeedo props

The iconic orange Torqeedo propellers are about to go "green," as they will soon be made from recycled plastic. Each year, 14 million tonnes of plastic waste end up in the ocean, breaking down into microplastics and polluting the environment. In its quest for alternative materials to minimise environmental harm, the German boat motor manufacturer Torqeedo has established a dedicated engineering division. Its mission is to find effective ways to utilise PET and PP granules collected from the ocean. 

Project leader Florian Deger shared the team's early successes: “Previously, recycled materials made up only 10–20% of our new products. Now, we’ve developed prototypes of propellers made entirely from 100% recycled plastic, and in the first round of environmental and stress testing, they exceeded all benchmark standards.” The company announced that if upcoming tests are equally successful, Torqeedo propellers made from ocean plastic could hit the market within a year.