• Maetani@jlai.lu
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    4 hours ago

    While there’s no doubt tires are bad for the environment, a quarter of all microplastics seems a lot, especially since plastic is everywhere. Gladly there’s a source for that claim, a link to tireindustryproject’s FAQ… Claiming that this number is a gross overestimation. What the fuck is this article? Is it supposed to be satire or something?

    • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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      3 hours ago

      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.