Concerned about microplastics? Research shows one of the biggest sources is car tyres
A lot of the emphasis on reducing microplastics has focussed on things like plastic bags, clothing, and food packaging.
But there's a growing body of research that shows one of the biggest culprits by far is car tyres.
It's increasingly clear that we simply cannot solve the issue of microplastics in the environment while still using tyres — even with electric-powered cars.
"Tyre wear stands out as a major source of microplastic pollution. Globally, each person is responsible for around 1kg of microplastic pollution from tyre wear released into the environment on average each year – with even higher rates observed in developed nations.
"It is estimated that between 8% and 40% of these particles find their way into surface waters such as the sea, rivers and lakes through runoff from road surfaces, wastewater discharge or even through airborne transport.
"However, tyre wear microplastics have been largely overlooked as a microplastic pollutant. Their dark colour makes them difficult to detect, so these particles can’t be identified using the traditional spectroscopy methods used to identify other more colourful plastic polymers."
"Microplastic pollution has polluted the entire planet, from Arctic snow and Alpine soils to the deepest oceans. The particles can harbour toxic chemicals and harmful microbes and are known to harm some marine creatures. People are also known to consume them via food and water, and to breathe them, But the impact on human health is not yet known.
"“Roads are a very significant source of microplastics to remote areas, including the oceans,” said Andreas Stohl, from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research, who led the research. He said an average tyre loses 4kg during its lifetime. “It’s such a huge amount of plastic compared to, say, clothes,” whose fibres are commonly found in rivers, Stohl said. “You will not lose kilograms of plastic from your clothing.”"
"Microplastics are of increasing concern in the environment [1, 2]. Tire wear is estimated to be one of the largest sources of microplastics entering the aquatic environment [3,4,5,6,7]. The mechanical abrasion of car tires by the road surface forms tire wear particles (TWP) [8] and/or tire and road wear particles (TRWP), consisting of a complex mixture of rubber, with both embedded asphalt and minerals from the pavement [9]."
There aren't enough swear words to express how angry this makes me!!
"Industrial Farming Has Killed Billions of Birds"
🤬 🤬 🤬 🤬
Worldwide, 49% of all wild bird species are in steep decline.
BirdLife International’s authoritative report, State of the World’s Birds 2022, estimates that there are now nearly three billion fewer wild birds in Canada and the U.S. than a few decades ago, and about 600 million fewer in the European Union.
The single biggest cause of bird declines is chemical-intensive farming. Some birds are killed by pesticides or herbicides, but the most important impacts are loss of food, especially insects and other invertebrates that most bird species depend on, and the spread of fertilizer-intensive monocultures that eliminate shelter and nesting areas. Insect-eating populations declined more than any others.
In short, the collapse of farmland bird populations is closely related to the Insect Apocalypse in the Anthropocene. The mass slaughter of insects is killing masses of birds.
I know this might startle you, but I'm actually going to post a hopeful article. And for once, I'm not being ironic.
This really is very cool...
Scientists have found microplastics everywhere: in deep ocean trenches, near the tops of remote mountains. In 2019, researchers in Australia estimated that we ingest a credit card’s worth of microplastics every week, with unknown health effects. Other reports document the ballooning impact of plastic pollution on marine life, as well as plastic production’s growing carbon footprint and disproportionate harms against poor communities of color.
Sarah Paiji Yoo was determined to do something about this, and co-founded Blueland in 2019. The company’s mission is to eliminate unnecessary plastics from familiar cleaning and personal care products like dish soap, toilet bowl cleaner, and body wash — all of which they sell in concentrated tablet form, shipped directly to customers in recyclable paper packaging.
The tablets dissolve in water and can be used to refill Blueland’s durable glass or ceramic bottles. Yoo said the bottles are intended to be “the last set” of cleaning containers her customers ever buy: No more disposable plastic, no more pollution, no more hazardous tap water. “We don’t take that lightly,” she told Grist.
Yoo is among a growing number of business owners who have aligned themselves with activists and policymakers who want to move the global economy away from plastics, which are rarely recycled and are laden with toxic chemicals. The broader movement seeks to reduce plastic production, an urgent priority considering petrochemical companies’ plans to triple the amount of plastic they make by 2060. That scenario could cause more than 44 million metric tons of aquatic plastic pollution every year.
But these advocates and entrepreneurs are also envisioning a future free from single-use items altogether. By promoting a “circular economy” — patterns of consumption that reduce waste generation of any kind — they hope to eliminate not only single-use plastics, but also disposable products made from paper and metal. Their vision will require whole new business models and supply chains that prioritize reuse — containers and dishware and shipping packages that can be used again and again rather than discarded after just a few minutes.
American culture needs to “dispose of that disposable mindset, where everything is to be used and thrown away,” said Linda Corrado, a board member for the reuse nonprofit Upstream and an independent consultant in sustainable business strategies. She said she dreams of a day when plastic-free shopping is the default, where customers shop in stores that are “just one bulk bin after another.”
In my opinion, it was a silly idea to replace natural gas infrastructure with hydrogen burning, primarily because it is not produced in an environmentally friendly way and the current method pumps out lots of #GreenhouseGases and #Pollution, thus negating the supposed benefit of burning it.
Are microplastics from car tyres contributing to heart disease?
"Add one more likely culprit to the long list of known cardiovascular risk factors including red meat, butter, smoking and stress: microplastics.
"In a study released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of physicians and researchers showed that surgical patients who had a build-up of micro and nanoplastics in their arterial plaque had a 2.1 times greater risk of nonfatal heart attack, nonfatal stroke or death from any cause in the three years post surgery than those who did not."
So it's not just the sedentary lifestyles that car-dependent planning encourages that's causing health issues.
And it's not just exhaust fumes either.
There's also the health impacts of microplastics, including from car tyres.
Worth noting as well that internal documents from the big oil companies show that they knew since the 1970s that recycling wasn't going to solve the problem of plastic pollution. They promoted it anyway: https://aus.social/@ajsadauskas/112064312364853769
Let’s get personal, shall we? I’ve been here a while now, and as I’m feeling quite comfortable at Mastodon, I’d like to share a bit more about myself beyond my passion for the climate and the environment.
To begin with, I’m a male, he/him, hetero, strongly supporting LGBTQ rights. I’m a baby boomer, born at 312 PPM 🌏, a United Statesian, although I lived in Europe (mostly Hungary) for several years, and traveled extensively for work before retiring in 2012. I’ve never been good at sustaining long-term romantic relationships, and I’ve finally settled into comfortable singlehood.
I like to say I’m made of contrasts.
For example, I’m rather funny and quite personable, but I don’t enjoy small talk and I hate parties. I currently live in the Bible Belt, but I’m an outspoken atheist. While I can easily fit into most social situations, I don’t feel comfortable around large groups and prefer being alone most of the time. I live near two huge military bases, but I detest the USA’s militaristic, troop-worshiping culture. I’m almost always cheerful, which masks my deeply felt existential nihilism. I’m a neat freak, but also rather lazy, preferring fun over work.
I’ll finish up with some hashtags to add flavor...
I'm not splitting hairs here, pollution is #pollution, but I don't think the threat of an #EV car purchase surge, REPLACING fossil fuel powered cars on the road, is the root of the problem here. Howbeit, it does knock their "#green" status if old, polluting tire #technology is still used. #Climate
Reuters, "Tire-makers are under pressure to almost literally reinvent the wheel as regulators turn their scrutiny to tire pollution that is set to surge with the rise of electric vehicles (EVs)"
That’s WAY out of line with anything except very recent history. Throughout almost all of our existence as a species, humans lived in a generally stable balance with our surroundings, existing as a part of Nature, rather than being at war with it.
But that began to change with the rise of civilization ~10,000 years ago, and got much worse in the last few centuries with the growth of industrialization, finally exploding out of control in the past 50 years or so. And it’s totally unsustainable. Anyone can see that.
You and I, along with our 8 billion friends and neighbors, are Icarus, flying too close to the Sun. The wax on our wings is melting, and we are — all of us — about to come crashing down.
Government scientists find shocking levels of coal mine pollution in Alberta Rockies
A former coal mine in the Alberta Rockies is releasing a contaminant toxic to fish at rates more than dozens of times higher than federal and provincial guidelines, while another periodically disgorges water so iron-heavy it stains local creeks orange, research says.
How about this idea instead? Let's just STOP FLYING SO MUCH!!
Nationalize the airlines and shut them down. Take over the factory farms and close them for good.
Except that probably makes way too much sense. It's what any thinking person with a conscience would do.
But capitalists don't care. They don't care about killing animals or polluting the atmosphere or even bringing about the end of civilization. None of that matters to them if there's 💵 money 💵 to be made!
“Air #pollution is helping to drive rise in #antibiotics resistance that poses significant threat to human health worldwide..
The analysis, using data from more than 100 countries spanning nearly 2 decades, indicates that increased air pollution is linked with rising antibiotic resistance across every country & continent” #ClimateCrisis
Electric cars are better, on balance, than ICE cars. But...
Well, take a look at this first. Then we can talk more about my But down below.
The urgency of climate change requires electrifying the 278 million personal vehicles plying American roadways as quickly as we can. After all, EVs are far more climate-friendly than equivalent gas-powered models because they eliminate the tailpipe emissions that warm the planet and pollute the air. Better yet, EVs are simply fun to drive: Most models are quicker and quieter than your average gas car.
However, that is not the full story.
EVs also produce emissions beyond what spews from their tailpipe. Like all cars, their tires are constantly rubbing against pavement, releasing particulates that float through the air and leach into waterways, damaging human health and wildlife. New EV models tend to be heavier and quicker — generating more particulates and deepening the danger.
In other words, EVs have a tire-pollution problem, and one that is poised to get worse as America begins to adopt electric cars en masse. None of this is inevitable. EVs don’t need to be so massive and lightning-fast — these are choices that the auto industry has made. All of us will pay the price.
As a form of microplastics, tire pollution hits wildlife hard: Compounds that settle on the ground gradually leach toxic chemicals into the soil and water. One study concluded that tires could be responsible for as much as 28% of the microplastics in global oceans.
The smallest tire particles, measured in mere nanometers, can enter our lungs and spread to our organs. Various tire components have been linked to chronic conditions including respiratory problems, kidney damage, neurological damage, and birth defects — a particular concern in neighborhoods adjacent to highways, whose residents skew low-income and minority.
Anyway, so we agree, EVs basically are better than ICE cars.
BUT — as you've seen, they have their own problems. And do we really need to still have 300+ million cars clogging our roads, posing a threat to cyclists and pedestrians and basic sanity?
For me, the answer is No.
I say public transit is better. Bicycles are better. Walking is better.
The steel industry knows it's up against the wall. The idea that "Green Steel" is part of the #zero-emissions solution is a pipe dream. #Mining and #refining require #energy, and lots of it. In this paper we are being sold #Hydrogen as the answer, so lets see.
I've been thinking about clothes pegs and the vast superiority of wooden pegs. We dry our clothes on a clothes line and have a box of wooden and plastic clothes pegs.
The plastic pegs degrade in sunlight and eventually break. They'll fill a landfill or break into microplastics. Meanwhile, sunlight keeps rot off the wooden pegs and with regular use they may outlast me. If they break, the wood can be tossed in the garden to rot.
"About 10% of the particles floating around the stratosphere now come from the aerospace industry, and we don't know if this could impact the climate."
Trees and bushes planted near highways do more than improve the scenery. A new Georgia State University study finds they significantly reduce air pollution caused by motor vehicles, which has been linked to a host of illnesses
Oil giant Shell warns cutting production 'dangerous' (www.bbc.co.uk)
I don't know about you but I'm sure glad the chief exec of Shell cares about our futures.......
Study: Trees, Bushes Near Highways Can Significantly Reduce Air Pollution (lighthouse-eco.co.za)
Trees and bushes planted near highways do more than improve the scenery. A new Georgia State University study finds they significantly reduce air pollution caused by motor vehicles, which has been linked to a host of illnesses