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
@ColeSloth @epistatacadam I noticed you didn’t respond to @LovesTha after they mentioned they’re from Australia.
Yeah, Australia is “built different” to the US in that we have less than 1/10th the population in a land mass roughly the size of the continental US.
Yet despite that we still somehow manage to have better public transport than most of the US.
Long commutes? One of my colleagues at my current job travels from Bendigo to Melbourne at least two days a week. That’s a 186 mile (300 km) round trip.
In a previous job, one of my colleagues commuted from Katoomba to Sydney. You wouldn’t have heard of it, but it’s a town of around 8,268 people in the mountains. A 126 mile/102km round trip.
And in my previous job I semi-regularly had to commute from Sydney to Newcastle. That’s 324km (202 miles).
The difference is that all those commutes are by train.
Yes, we have towns like Katoomba in the mountains with less than 10,000 people that have a half-hourly peak and hourly off-peak train service: https://transportnsw.info/documents/timetables/93-BMT-Blue-Mountains-Line-20230708.pdf
Why not drive? Well, because the (by world standards) slow trains from Bendigo to Melbourne travel at 160 kp/h, compared to 110 kp/h at best for driving: https://vicsig.net/index.php?page=passenger§ion=rollingstock&subs=railmotors&rmtype=VLocity
(Of course, you won’t consistently get those speeds driving, because of traffic jams.)
So how can Australia do it while America can’t?
Because the US federal government has literally spent trillions of dollars subsidising roads, subsidising the auto industry, and subsidising fossil fuels.
Because governments mandate that business owners subsidise drivers by imposing minimum parking requirements.
Because zoning codes explicitly outlaw mixed use development and higher density developments in many parts of the US.
Because US governments at all levels have imposed this on its citizens for the past 70 years, while hardly investing in public transport infrastructure.
Your entire population has no city over 100,000 people that doesn’t live near the coast and almost all of those are in the southeast and east side of the country. All you need to get around by train there is essentially one track shaped in a funny looking circle.
@ColeSloth “Your entire population has no city over 100,000 people that doesn’t live near the coast”
Canberra’s population is 456,692, but it’s only the national capital.
Ballarat’s population is 117,240.
Bendigo’s population is 103,818.
Albury-Wodonga is around 100,000 and growing.
“and almost all of those are in the southeast and east side of the country.”
Perth, Adelaide, Mandurah, and Darwin say hi.
“All you need to get around by train there is essentially one track shaped in a funny looking circle.”
You mean to reach all the major coastal capital cities?
You do realise Australia is roughly the same size as the continental US, right?
And it would have to be a bloody funny looking circle to have Melbourne, Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Albury-Wodonga.
All with over 100,000 people or more (in the case of Melbourne and Geelong, much more).
All have a direct rail line with regular passenger services to Melbourne, as does Gippsland and Shepparton.
By the way, Dubbo has a population of 43,516. It’s inland, and 392 km (244 mi) NW of Sydney. You know what else it has?
Trains: https://transportnsw.info/regional/book-sydney-to-dubbo-by-train
Bonus fact. You know what Alice Springs, in the middle of the continent with a population of 25,912 and nothing but desert for miles around has?
Trains: https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/journeys/the-ghan/
C’mon son, you can do better…
So you’re saying you have like 30 with populations at or over 100k? Ok. Wow. The US has over 330 like that. A rail system doesn’t sustain when people are trying to get from one place to so many different destinations and you can’t claim it can, when it’s literally never been created on a scale of anything similar to the US. For everyone to get to their destinations without it taking many extra hours of travel time you’d have to have a massive amount of trains and track, and tons of them would be going places where they may only have a handful of passengers on board, and a train running with just a dozen passengers is a hell of a lot worse for the environment than a dozen cars. A lot worse. Trains are only efficient if they’re closer to full. That can’t happen in the US unless travel destinations limit themselves way down, which cuts a lot of people off from using them.
