@neauoire I have had the username Wheelsgr since I was about 13 and I did not have any idea about this factoid. Cars are a tool of the apocalypse. Emissions, consumption, individualism and microplastics. Plastics reduce sperm count and affect health. It's population control framed as convenience for people who don't care if we or they live or die.

@neauoire I'd often wonder about this! Vehicles materials wear down and wash somewhere. Tires, car oil, not just gas, paint, and wiper fluid looks nasty..

@neauoire ah, car tires. The things that I heard years ago they could make last the life of a car but won't because capitalism.

@neauoire throughout the article there's a tone of 'how can we possibly solve this' and like the solution is right there: DRIVE LESS

@neauoire I feel sad to say that I think EVs are going to make the wear occur more (because they are heavy with batteries) but perhaps people drive EVs less?

@neauoire so many 'environmentalists' love their cars.

@neauoire @SRDas That adds to 100%. So, no.

@neauoire they also contain a lot of nasty chemicals. Please please do not use car tyres in your garden or allotment.

@neauoire and the best part: #ParticleEmissions from #Tires and #Brakes can't be clamped down without making traffic worse, more lethal or pushing for more and better #PublicTransport!

@neauoire

Why EVs are not a silver bullet, chapter 845...

@neauoire How much did bicycle tires contribute? grenade.gif <ducks>

@neauoire
The auto industry (between car manufacturers, tire companies, oil companies) has so much to answer for with the destruction of Earth and its resources as well as the huge toll of human suffering over its entire history.

The auto industry utterly fucked over the world in about a hundred different ways.

@neauoire this is why car tyres should be made out of wood.

or we could drastically reduce the number of cars on the road.

@neauoire This is actually good news, it means 3/4 of the problem can be attacked in one place.

@neauoire Yet they are easy to recyle ,I have fair trade plant pots made from them ,you can buy shoes from them and stepping stones/path slabs for slippery areas and you can use them to build houses with straw ,a couple where I used to live built one ,its warm and looks stunning but cost a lot less than a normal house and they built it themselves.

@neauoire The strange thing about the numbers quoted in the article is the rapid rise of particles. (No, it's not the EVs. Still too few.) What has changed the last few years? Is it increased flooding washing more waste from the roads into the sea? Or have there been large scale dumping of used tires in the oceans? Something else?

@neauoire

Wonder what the downside is of going back to rubber and steel tires without all the plastics

@neauoire I'm not suprised. Here in Germany we have large areas of farmland right next to the highway. This is probably the case in many countries.

@neauoire

We just keep finding new ways that cars are awful and killing us. 🙄

@neauoire

Is there actual *plastic* in the typical tire?

@neauoire A possible way to reduce microplastics from tyres: https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/01/26/student-s-invention-to-stop-microplastic-pollution-wins-dyson-award But better would probably be to use or invent other materials.

@neauoire And electric cars only make this worse, as their tires wear faster.

@neauoire This is alarming indeed. I'd like to point out that this quote requires more context though.

The referenced report states this (page 89):

> Eleven percent of total plastics [...] comes from the four key sources [...]

... and then continues to break down these four key sources into 78% from tyres, etc.

So we're talking about 78% of 11%, which is more like 8.6% of measured microplastics.

... But these numbers are from 2016 and are may be higher by now.