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I've read that the majority of microplastics come from tire wear (national geographic quoted 28% of the total), and because there's no good alternative to wheel
by veemjeem 3y ago
I've read that the majority of microplastics come from tire wear (national geographic quoted 28% of the total), and because there's no good alternative to wheel tires, it's unlikely we'll see a decrease of pollution here. So even if we found an alternative to bottles, plastic bags, clothing, etc, it still won't make a dent in pollution unless we convince the world to use a form of public transit that doesn't make use of plastic tires.
We could reduce human consumption of the particles if we only consumed lab-grown meat & hydroponically grown vegetables where the water is ultra-filtered before use.
- digging 3y ago> because there's no good alternative to wheel tires, it's unlikely we'll see a decrease of pollution here Well, we could stop pretending that God gave cars dominion over the earth and build livable cities.
- bequanna 3y ago[flagged]
- digging 3y ago> Suburbs don’t exist because of some big oil and auto company conspiracy. They exist because they give people an option they find more appealing vs urban areas. No, modern car-dependent suburbs actually do exist because of oil and auto conspiracies. There exist options between high density and car-dependency. Surburbs can be walkable, and cities can have walkable low-density areas.
- mike50 3y agoYour typical modern American suburb is homes that would be three family homes 60 years ago on land that would fit three of those homes let alone a normal size house. All of this is subsidized by tax write-offs and gasoline that is 50% discounted relative to the rest of the developed world. Not much freedom of movement when everything even a neighbor is a 15 minute drive away either due to sprawl or trafic.
- bequanna 3y ago“Subsidized by tax write offs” Umm, are you referring to the being able to write off mortgage interest on your personal residence? What exactly does this have to do with suburbs?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- merlinran 3y ago28% is not majority. Plus the hard part shouldn't prevent us from doing the easy part with much higher ROI.
- veemjeem 3y agoI did some more research, and it looks like tires are the 2nd largest part of the pie in terms of single origin. The largest is textiles which are 35%.
- proto_lambda 3y ago> there's no good alternative to wheel tires Steel wheels on steel tracks work pretty well, actually. Admittedly brake dust is still a problem for classic locomotive-pulled trains.
- broguinn 3y agoI also learned in a Not Just Bikes video that the US tire lobby prevents regulation on quieter car tires. I bet there are ways to make tires that shed fewer microplastics - it's just that we don't do it.