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Anyone who's worked in a warehouse with forklifts could tell you this. I remember taking care of a PC in one when I was like 19-20 and asking about the dust and being told it was tires.
My immediate thought was "oh Jesus Christ what must our cars be doing"
Then the first big public studies on microplastics dropped.
Thinking back on how black my skin would become with tire dust, I'm amazed that masks aren't required by OSHA on freight docks. I used to be so dirty at the end of a shift. I'm sure it didn't have good impacts on my lungs...
To be fair forklifts do a lot more low-speed or static turning which causes significant tyre wear, but compared to the sheer volume of car traffic...
Not to mention the abuse that fork lift drivers put on them due to speed expectations. Few drivers use their brakes, and just blast the transmission from forward to reverse or vise versa.
So, there is plastic in our rubber tires? Interesting. Can we call it plas-rubber then and sound all futuristic at least?!
I don't think we've used tree rubber in our car rubbers in a long time
Correct, it's all been synthetic for a long, long time. And for what that's worth, even if there were enough sources of natural latex in the world to support the global tire industry, we'd still have problems. In both cases, polymers are stabilized with sulfur in a process called vulcanization. I'm mostly sure that's why tires don't decompose under natural conditions.
People are working on it though: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11041115/
We need trains so bad
While I agree with you, particularly in urban areas where it's easy for transit to make sense, I do still think we need solutions for people not living near cities too. Makes me wonder if there's any tire technology out there to be developed that would either shed a lot less plastic, or maybe not even contain plastics.
Inb4 "lighter cars" or "just walk", yeah I know, and I already drive a wagon rather than an SUV, to min/max size versus practicality, and I usually try to walk to town unless I need to carry something heavy or the weather is particularly shit, but there's a ton of times where I need to go on a long drive, sometimes through multiple urban areas (that now get polluted with my microplastics), and public transit offers me no solution, or the solution is to at least double or triple the time taken by my already long drive. I'm eventually moving from diesel to electric to cut down on my exhaust pollution, but I'd also like there to be something that people like myself can do about the microplastics. Not because I think me alone doing something would change something, but because once something exists, it can be mandated by the EU or local governments.
not living near cities
Fewer cars, more green-space in the countryside, so not a huge worry. Cities should really focus on public transit; it fixes so many problems, no more drinking and driving, freeway congestion, traffic accidents, cost of owning car.
There was this chapter in an XKCD book talking about where does tire particles goes. From memory, it said "there are many answers to that question and none of them are good".
I love cars. I also wish my city had realistic public transport options that worked for my commute.
Trains are the real solution.
Bro-dozer pickups weighing 9000+ pounds are the biggest problem.
This isn’t a hard problem to solve technicaly… it’s just a social problem.
Vehicles are now over weight and over powered. Laws could fix this. No one needs a 4000lb car with 600hp.
Weirdly, electric cars are also worse for tire abrasion since they tend to be heavier. Trains and electric bikes (in cities) seems like a good way to go
Heavier, and they generate a lot of instant torque. Small EVs don't have this issue.
so, what alternative do we have to plastic tires? do we just go back to using extract from the rubber tree?
Reducing the use of cars would help.
If only there was a way
It's long been known most of the microplastics come from tires and clothing.
The stuff from tires is in the air and the environment as road run off and the stuff from clothing is in the water from washing it.
Fuck I wish so many cities aren't designed to be car centric. Imagine QoL improvements
Yes, but the all new 2028 Ford Mustang Mach-E comes with a HEPA cabin filter and racing tires guaranteed to last half the time they would on a Corolla. You can take advantage now of Ford's More Than You Can Afford Event, and get yourself into a Mustang with Always-Low* payments across a 12^2^ month term!
~* Always-Low payments subject to increase; does not include seven nigh mandatory monthly subscriptions~
We need to get cars out of cities. A blanket ban. Only emergency vehicles, and maybe small trucks for deliveries, and cars for people with disabilities. That's it.
Imagine how beautiful, safe, silent our cities would be.
Step 1: rebuild all the infrastructure
Sort out public transport, make it very attractive, even free. Charge for cars, parking, etc, with suspension for needs like disability, hospital appointments, that kind of thing.