Concerned about microplastics? Research shows one of the biggest sources is car tyres
A lot of the emphasis on reducing microplastics has focussed on things like plastic bags, clothing, and food packaging.
But there’s a growing body of research that shows one of the biggest culprits by far is car tyres.
It’s increasingly clear that we simply cannot solve the issue of microplastics in the environment while still using tyres — even with electric-powered cars.
"Tyre wear stands out as a major source of microplastic pollution. Globally, each person is responsible for around 1kg of microplastic pollution from tyre wear released into the environment on average each year – with even higher rates observed in developed nations.
"It is estimated that between 8% and 40% of these particles find their way into surface waters such as the sea, rivers and lakes through runoff from road surfaces, wastewater discharge or even through airborne transport.
“However, tyre wear microplastics have been largely overlooked as a microplastic pollutant. Their dark colour makes them difficult to detect, so these particles can’t be identified using the traditional spectroscopy methods used to identify other more colourful plastic polymers.”
"Microplastic pollution has polluted the entire planet, from Arctic snow and Alpine soils to the deepest oceans. The particles can harbour toxic chemicals and harmful microbes and are known to harm some marine creatures. People are also known to consume them via food and water, and to breathe them, But the impact on human health is not yet known.
““Roads are a very significant source of microplastics to remote areas, including the oceans,” said Andreas Stohl, from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, who led the research. He said an average tyre loses 4kg during its lifetime. “It’s such a huge amount of plastic compared to, say, clothes,” whose fibres are commonly found in rivers, Stohl said. “You will not lose kilograms of plastic from your clothing.””
“Microplastics are of increasing concern in the environment [1, 2]. Tire wear is estimated to be one of the largest sources of microplastics entering the aquatic environment [3,4,5,6,7]. The mechanical abrasion of car tires by the road surface forms tire wear particles (TWP) [8] and/or tire and road wear particles (TRWP), consisting of a complex mixture of rubber, with both embedded asphalt and minerals from the pavement [9].”
https://microplastics.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s43591-021-00008-w
#car #cars #urbanism #UrbanPlanning #FuckCars @fuck_cars #environment #microplastics #pollution #plastics
Wrong. Each person is not responsible for 1kg,
Someone living in rural Tanzania is responsible for close to zero kg, and some people are probably responsible for dozens of kg.
I really hate when people say “each person” implying that everyone use about the same amount, rather than an actual tonnage. Feel free to add distribution across nations, life styles and other categorizations after that.
<crawls-back-under-the-rock_without-tires/>
@fuck_cars
No, that’s still not fair.
That’s like saying; “On average, you kill 0.001 persons in your life time.”, or “On average, you smuggle 100 grams of hard narcotics in your life.”
But that’s literally how averages work.
The article obviously tries to highlight a systemic problem. Do we really need to put that much emphasis on avoiding any feeling of individual responsibility to the point where that’s no longer possible?
Nobody reading this puts the blame on someone in rural Tanzania. It’s a complete non-issue and definitely not what we should be focusing on coming from this very important article.
Close to zero. I haven’t bicycled regularly since I was teenager, but back then I did about 2000-5000km per year, and a set of tires weighed ~1kg and lasted 3-5 years, and most of the weight was not scrubbed off, but part of the regular waste.
How much am I responsible for? If I weigh the tires (all 4) when I buy them, then use them for X years, then weigh them when I get rid of them for the next ones- then that is how much I responsible for. And I can divide it by the years I had it for a yearly number too.
And that is how much microplastic I would agree I am responsible for with the tires. There is also the carbon cost of making them, supplying them, and disposal. But we were talking about microplastics…
