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> In the car-happy United States, the amount jumps to nearly five kilograms—or about the weight of a cat. 1.25 kg/tire/year is a totally unbelievable quantity
by zaroth 6y ago
> In the car-happy United States, the amount jumps to nearly five kilograms—or about the weight of a cat.
1.25 kg/tire/year is a totally unbelievable quantity for a passenger car tire to shed annually.
- maxerickson 6y agoA medium size tire has ~5 square feet of surface area, so 3 or 4 square feet of tread. A tenth of an inch of wear on that surface is at least close to a pound of rubber.
- zaroth 6y agoThis EPA study[1] (Pg 21) shows tire wear per mile has an inverse relationship to speed, but averages around 0.005g/km - 0.02g/km per tire. (NOTE: their table is per axle, front tires wear twice as fast) 20,000 km would be 100-400g per tire. EDIT: Sorry, the units in the table shift from km, mi, single tire, axle, whole car, and it took me several tries to get the right numbers. https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_file_download.cfm?p_download_id=525701 https://cfpub.epa.gov/si/si_public_file_download.cfm?p_downl...
- maxerickson 6y agoYeah, in any case the paper gives smaller values than my estimate. It does use small vehicles though, at least relative to the last decades of production in the US (paper uses 1990s European sedans).
- rconti 6y agoIt is important not to misread this as "about the weight of a CAR" as I did, the first 5 times :)