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How much plastic escapes into the environment for a typical car tyre in its lifespan?

istjohn 6y ago
> A 2017 scientific literature search of 13 industrialized and industrializing countries found that an average car loses between a quarter kilogram and two kilograms of tire fragments annually. In the car-happy United States, the amount jumps to nearly five kilograms—or about the weight of a cat.[1] 1. https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/when-rubber-hits-the-road-and-washes-away/ https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/when-rubber-hits-the-...
- cinntaile 6y ago
  I believe it is this [0] study. The losses are 0.23 to 4.7 kg/year in that paper. A newer review study from 2020 has numbers ranging from 0.2 to 5.5 kg/(capita*year). [1] [0] https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2Fijerph14101265 https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2Fijerph14101265 [1] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137823 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137823
jfk13 6y ago
Well... not a direct answer to your question, but I was prompted to post this as a result of seeing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235772. An excerpt from the article there: > Tires have one engineering principle that’s unlikely to change: they shed. The friction of rubber on abrasive surfaces is what allows a heavy vehicle to grip roads and stop when needed, sloughing off bits and pieces of the tire. A 2017 scientific literature search of 13 industrialized and industrializing countries found that an average car loses between a quarter kilogram and two kilograms of tire fragments annually. In the car-happy United States, the amount jumps to nearly five kilograms—or about the weight of a cat.
- JoeAltmaier 6y ago
  And does that matter? Is there a measurable impact on the environment? Not just detecting it as present; that seems certain. But then what? Does it have an affect?
  - IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
    I saw this story some other place earlier, and it was mentioned that 28% of plastic pollution of the oceans is tire debris. Plastic is organic. As it breaks down, it does so in an endless variety of organic molecules. These being similar to biological molecules, they readily interact with all sorts of biological systems. Those systems have all seen a few billion years of optimisation, making it unlikely for any random interference to be beneficial.
    - lopmotr 6y ago
      But does it matter? The odd organism dying here and there doesn't matter. If the effect isn't quantified, then it could easily be "effectively nothing".
- aitchnyu 6y ago
  Should eco-conscious customers buy long-distance tires and avoid soft compound, low noise and other improvements?
sp332 6y ago
Enough to wear the treads down.
- kurthr 6y ago
  I can give you an OK estimate: Tire tread is 8-9mm thick to start and starts to be unsafe 1/8" or 3mm so there are 5-6mm of useful tread at sale. The diameter of a tire is ~0.5m (ok a little more) with a width of 0.25m (and fill of ~80%). So the volume is ~0.00530.50.80.250= 0.0015m3= 1.5 liters This lasts about 30k miles or 50k km over about ~2-3 years. What's interesting is that the thickness of the layer deposited as it rolls (from this simplified model) 1.5E-3/(50E60.250.8)=3nm which is about 0.15nm or a monolayer.
  - Pfhreak 6y ago
    So every car is pretty much dumping ~3 liters of plastic out on the roads every year? (4 tires = 6 liters every 2-3 years.) Let's say there are on the order of 100,000,000 cars in regular use in America. That's 300,000,000 liters of of plastic waste generated each year? That's hundreds of thousands of tons of waste thrown into the environment every year! I had no idea that car tires shed that much.
    - lopmotr 6y ago
      How do you judge that number to be a lot? Are you comparing it to something else you're already familiar with?
      - Pfhreak 6y ago
        I'm familiar with a liter. If I saw a liter of solid plastic sitting by the side of the road I'd be quite disappointed. That's like finding 20 empty two liter bottles just lying there. (Based on a bottle using 50 grams of plastic.) So yeah, seems like a lot to throw out every year from every car. Put another way, if every driver threw an empty two liter bottle on the side of the road every two weeks, you'd have an equivalent amount of plastic being shed into the environment.
harlanji 6y ago
Tires last about 60k+ miles or 4-8yrs, and cars last about 200k+ miles. Tires lose about 1/2 inch of a 22 inch or so diameter on about a 10 inch wide tire before they go bad.

> A 2017 scientific literature search of 13 industrialized and industrializing countries found that an average car loses between a quarter kilogram and two kilograms of tire fragments annually. In the car-happy United States, the amount jumps to nearly five kilograms—or about the weight of a cat.[1] 1. https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/when-rubber-hits-the-road-and-washes-away/ https://www.hakaimagazine.com/features/when-rubber-hits-the-...

cinntaile 6y ago
I believe it is this [0] study. The losses are 0.23 to 4.7 kg/year in that paper. A newer review study from 2020 has numbers ranging from 0.2 to 5.5 kg/(capita*year). [1] [0] https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2Fijerph14101265 https://dx.doi.org/10.3390%2Fijerph14101265 [1] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137823 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137823

jfk13 6y ago

Well... not a direct answer to your question, but I was prompted to post this as a result of seeing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25235772. An excerpt from the article there: > Tires have one engineering principle that’s unlikely to change: they shed. The friction of rubber on abrasive surfaces is what allows a heavy vehicle to grip roads and stop when needed, sloughing off bits and pieces of the tire. A 2017 scientific literature search of 13 industrialized and industrializing countries found that an average car loses between a quarter kilogram and two kilograms of tire fragments annually. In the car-happy United States, the amount jumps to nearly five kilograms—or about the weight of a cat.

JoeAltmaier 6y ago
And does that matter? Is there a measurable impact on the environment? Not just detecting it as present; that seems certain. But then what? Does it have an affect?
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y ago
  I saw this story some other place earlier, and it was mentioned that 28% of plastic pollution of the oceans is tire debris. Plastic is organic. As it breaks down, it does so in an endless variety of organic molecules. These being similar to biological molecules, they readily interact with all sorts of biological systems. Those systems have all seen a few billion years of optimisation, making it unlikely for any random interference to be beneficial.
  - lopmotr 6y ago
    But does it matter? The odd organism dying here and there doesn't matter. If the effect isn't quantified, then it could easily be "effectively nothing".
aitchnyu 6y ago
Should eco-conscious customers buy long-distance tires and avoid soft compound, low noise and other improvements?

sp332 6y ago

Enough to wear the treads down.

kurthr 6y ago
I can give you an OK estimate: Tire tread is 8-9mm thick to start and starts to be unsafe 1/8" or 3mm so there are 5-6mm of useful tread at sale. The diameter of a tire is ~0.5m (ok a little more) with a width of 0.25m (and fill of ~80%). So the volume is ~0.00530.50.80.250= 0.0015m3= 1.5 liters This lasts about 30k miles or 50k km over about ~2-3 years. What's interesting is that the thickness of the layer deposited as it rolls (from this simplified model) 1.5E-3/(50E60.250.8)=3nm which is about 0.15nm or a monolayer.
- Pfhreak 6y ago
  So every car is pretty much dumping ~3 liters of plastic out on the roads every year? (4 tires = 6 liters every 2-3 years.) Let's say there are on the order of 100,000,000 cars in regular use in America. That's 300,000,000 liters of of plastic waste generated each year? That's hundreds of thousands of tons of waste thrown into the environment every year! I had no idea that car tires shed that much.
  - lopmotr 6y ago
    How do you judge that number to be a lot? Are you comparing it to something else you're already familiar with?
    - Pfhreak 6y ago
      I'm familiar with a liter. If I saw a liter of solid plastic sitting by the side of the road I'd be quite disappointed. That's like finding 20 empty two liter bottles just lying there. (Based on a bottle using 50 grams of plastic.) So yeah, seems like a lot to throw out every year from every car. Put another way, if every driver threw an empty two liter bottle on the side of the road every two weeks, you'd have an equivalent amount of plastic being shed into the environment.

harlanji 6y ago

Tires last about 60k+ miles or 4-8yrs, and cars last about 200k+ miles. Tires lose about 1/2 inch of a 22 inch or so diameter on about a 10 inch wide tire before they go bad.