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
Meanwhile car culture: BIGGER CARS, MORE WEIGHT, WIDER TIRES, MORE RUBBER, MORE ACCELERATION
Tbf regenerative braking is likely helping reduce the rate at which microparticles are shed by tires when slowing a vehicle, but the absolutely insane torque on modern cars, as well as the weight of carrying around the battery capacity to pull off that one road trip you’ll do once a year is likely offsetting the tiny benefits of that one improvement.
Why be efficient when you can ensure your own safety in an accident at the expense of the people you plow through?
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I really hope Aptera takes off, vehicle design in the exact opposite direction and in a way that REALLY makes sense.
@MentalEdge @CubbyTustard I keep telling folks we gotta get more efficient vehicles & that means lighter weight.
Even small pure evs will wear out faster than a small ice or hybrid, but it would still be a huge help if they sold smaller ones.
Of course the issue is that smaller range EV’s aren’t all that wanted except as a second vehicle for short trips. If you have a short range EV it won’t work as a complete replacement, so you then need two vehicles.
A short range EV has a lot more range than my bicycle, and my bicycle goes plenty far enough for my daily needs.
@ColeSloth @CubbyTustard I checked my movement history for the last few months. The furthest I went in a car in a day was 80k. If we look back over the entire year 160k is the furthest.
A small EV with 100k range would be a fine second car. A full sized sedan EV as the primary car with 200k range would be sufficient.
Any trip that is further than that should prefer to use rail for the bulk of the travel, hiring a car at the far end if needed (most holidays I’ve taken haven’t needed a car)
You’re European. How your country is sized and built is vastly different than what is capable right now in the US. Heck, I drive 90 miles (so like 145 KM ) each way to work a couple times a week. Stuff is spread out differently when your country is just the size of a US state.
Your decadent lifestyle shouldn’t have ever been normalized. Your neighborhood likely should have never been built. And the hundreds of miles of road network that you use weekly doesn’t need to exist.
@ColeSloth @LovesTha My friend, this has been debunked many times. Please stop propagating auto industry propaganda. The US is not “too big” for public transportation. We choose to prioritise automobiles & car-centric infrastructure. It’s a choice.
The US is most definitely too big and too spread out for complete or even close to complete public transportation. It’s only viable going from large city to large city and within a city. The US would need a complete redesign for public transport to work for a lot of people. Not to mention the lack of time people have and that it can ad an hour to a trip that’s 20 minutes by car.
@ColeSloth i’m sorry, but you have no idea what you are talking about. You’re literally parroting incorrect automobile and highway lobby talking points. The US interstate system is the worst thing to ever happen in terms of economy, equality, and ecology on top of the nonsensical logic going on here. I encourage you to seek out urbanist and transit planning YouTube and Twitch channels & educate yourself on the facts.
And I’m sorry, but as someone who lives in a smaller city and outside city limits where it’s more affordable, driving to a city, paying to park, taking a bus or train to go to another city and taking a bus to get where I need to go in that city is expensive and wastes loads of time and money. What you want only works if you live in a big city (which costs loads more) and can do everything you need to do almost all the time while staying in that city. Highways are also a requirement no matter what for commercial transport and time sensitive needs. You think things like emergency organ donations have time to take a train without a highway? Or ems transport for patients?
@ColeSloth Complete myth. EVs are far more durable than any ICE vehicle, having a couple thousand fewer parts and requiring far less maintenance. @CubbyTustard
You can get a rebuilt engine for $3,000 and pay someone $2,000 to put it in (overestimate, really. Motor swaps take like 5 hours to actually do).
Your large EV battery will cost you triple that or more. Plus they go through tires much faster. But hey, you save on some $40 oil changes, I guess.
@CubbyTustard @MentalEdge It’s not ‘better materials’ we need, it’s lighter vehicles. There’s no sense in these enormous things.
@CubbyTustard @MentalEdge I read they are also destroying the roads themselves, i.e. heavy EVs with large tyres make potholes larger when they drive over them. Don’t know whether this is confined to the UK where lots of road surfaces are asphalt/tarmac.