Bear in mind that the denominator is plastic pollution. Most plastic waste does not directly pollute the environment. If it is not recycled then it goes to landfills or incineration. Not ideal, but at least the damage is contained. (The bulk of ocean plastic comes from the rivers of poor countries without proper waste management.)

The issue with tyre microplastics is that it’s all but impossible to channel the waste. It’s the same with synthetic fabric: just washing it creates pollution that’s really hard to control.

I’ve seen a similar number in a lot of proper scientific sources, so this article may be bunk, but the number is correct I think.

For example this article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171003 They claim 27,26% in China.

And this article: https://www.rivm.nl/bibliotheek/rapporten/2024-0106.pdf They claim 24.88% in the EU and state it’s among the biggest if not the biggest contributor to microplastics.

I’m all for debunking stuff, but about a quarter seems to be the currently accepted quantity to the best of our abilities to measure.

There is a bit of confusion between the amount tyres contribute into the ocean, how much into the ocean and waterways and how much in the environment as a whole. A lot of it ends up in the soil, so it doesn’t contribute to plastics in the water, but still in the environment.

You want trains because they are good for the environment.

I want trains because chugga chugga choo choo.

We are not the same.

Can we take the tyres out of the environment?

Paper bags, obviously

Those reusable grocery bags made from recycled plastic? Disintegrates into dust eventually. And in your household to while it does so.

Use either natural fiber or nylon(more durable and by default, PFAS free).

Watch half the people in this sub completely scroll past your comment ignoring the fact that they are contributing to being insane amount of microplastics in our blood currently

Y’all don’t stand for shit

A little asbestos never hurt nobody

(Edit: Nvm. I just looked it up, brake pads no longer use asbestos, which is cool at least)

This is so far from the truth.

The real reason is cars are heavier. The more weight, the more wear on the tires. You can only make a tire compound so hard before they become uncomfortable rolling chunks.

In the 70s when the fuel crisis hit, cars were very inefficient. Heavy steel and heavy engines that guzzled field. As the technology has progressed we use composite materials to make them lighter where we can. Some of these materials are more expensive than others, so you won’t find them on all models. Magnesium and Carbon fiber for example. We started to make cars lighter.

Then there’s features, creature comforts, etc. We started adding more and more fancy features over time. These all add up. Heavy sound deadening pads are placed all over the bare chassis. Rip up your car’s carpet, underneath you’ll find them. They’re in the door and behind the dashboard. There’s even foam in the A, B and C pillars. We figured out that we can make cars quieter. Now that we can make them quieter, let’s add a lot of creature comforts. Power, heated seats and mirrors. Power windows, powered lift gates, and anything else that’s powered. These require electric motors. Not sure if you’ve ever seen these electric motors, but these are actually quite heavy little things. A few speakers is now almost a dozen in many models. Lots of trim pieces that make the car more aesthetically pleasing add weight.

Safety is a huge factor as well. One or two airbags has turned into about a dozen. Extra beams that are used to dissipate energy around you in a crash. My car has 8 alone for just the front driver and passenger.

Got a hybrid or an EV? These absolutely demolish tires because the additional components adds a lot of weight.

Even though we got better at making composite materials and reducing weight where we could, our need for creature comforts and advancement in technology has caused the overall trend for a car’s weight to go up. This information is readily available if you’d like to search the Internet.

A set of tires wear endurance has only gone up over time. But because of a car’s weight, it reduces its ability. Your driving habits also greatly impact how long your tires will last. Do you have a Rivian or Tesla? Go easy on the acceleration and showing off with the spirited driving. You can make your tires last less than 10,000 mi. Do you add additional weight? How long is that additional weight being hauled around? In other words, if your trunk is full of stuff, clean it out. You’re increasing fuel consumption and increasing tire wear.

Planned obsolescence

What? Maybe if you compare an old hard tire with no grip to a modern soft tire with tons of grip. But a modern hard tire lasts as long or longer and has more grip in all conditions.

Yes, though note that tire and road wear scale with the 4th power of the vehicle weight. If a person on a bicycle weighs 200 pounds and a person driving a car weighs 2000 pounds then the car is going to have roughly 10,000 times as much tire wear (and microplastic shedding) as the bike.

Now consider that people on bikes can even weigh less than 200 pounds and cars can weigh far more than 2000 pounds (I heard of a recent electric SUV that weighs 8000 pounds) and it becomes clear that bicycles are a complete non-issue, relative to cars. An 8000 pound car is equivalent to 6.25 million 160 pound bicycle + rider pairings.

Now consider the effects of 18-wheeler tractor tailors with a maximum weight upwards of 80,000 pounds. These things absolutely disintegrate their tires. If you’ve done any highway driving you’ve likely seen the shredded debris of tires on the shoulder of the road.

Edit: as an addendum I’d like to note that electric vehicles tend to weigh a lot more than ICE cars, by upwards of 1000 pounds. This is one of the reasons I’m dismayed at the rush to EVs: it’s going to accelerate the microplastic problem even as it reduces CO2.

also, why is it spelled that way?

British spelling of tire is tyre

To make sure it doesn’t destroy the road we could put metal in them also…

I see where you’re going. We should all switch to steel tracked Abrams tanks! /jk

Delightfully devilish, Seymour.

Maybe it could also run on some kind of metal street, to further reduce friction? 🤔

Naah. Propellers!

We make the tyres solid and the road rubber!

wait, no, damnit

If all you bike owners drove unicycles we wouldn’t be in this mess

Daddy I’m so sorry microplastics in your bloodstream are causing your untimely demise…

mic

miiii

Yes Daddy?

they’re MICRO rubbers you ignorant IDIOT

hi HOW ARE you TODAY?

i’m pretty GOOD MYSELF!!111!!!

I TOO like to RANDOMLY SWITCH TO upper case.

I HOPE YOU RECOVER SOON!

This is the problem with Scientific studies, Media, Reporting and bunch of people running with studies that make a lot of FALSE ASSUMPTIONS WITHOUT TELLING YOU THE FULL FUCKING STORY.

ah, but randos online know the real story. The Caplocks only adds to your authenticity. Look, you’re trying to ague about semantics to discredit concerns about microplastics getting in people’s blood streams. Within the context of micro particials, there’s really not much difference between “rubber” and “plastic” as what makes them unique to each other is their properties when bonded in large forms. Maybe it’s harmless or maybe it’s this generation’s lead poisons, toxoplasmosis, or aspectos. Aspectos, which by the way, is perfectly natural, but still dangerous to humans. Something I have to remind people when they talk about corn oil based plastics. The half life on PLA may be shorter, but research is still being done on how quickly harm happens and what levels harm can occur.

Rubber can mean both, natural rubber from specific trees, or synthetic rubber, which is made out of plastics.

Tyres are made from synthetic rubbers which are plastics.

Thanks for the link that argues against your rant. I guess you could salvage it some by comparing the numbers and claiming the plastic component is lower than the main article’s numbers in contribution. It would be awkward though if you find out they already separated those number in their math. It also doesn’t change the point that a huge amount of pollution in the form of tire wear occurs constantly and isn’t going away anytime soon.

Microrubbers sounds like condoms for guys with unfortunate situations in their pants though

The study linked in the article also says that microplastic and rubber are different. As far as I understood it, they also quoted it wrong.

Imagine things being made of multiple components and not one pure component. /s