Although plastic particles in the air are increasingly coming into focus, knowledge about their distribution and effects is still limited. Chemical analyses from Leipzig now provide details from Germany for the first time: Around 4% of the particulate matter consists of plastic. Around two-thirds of this comes from tire abrasion.
so, what alternative do we have to plastic tires? do we just go back to using extract from the rubber tree?
Reducing the use of cars would help.
If only there was a way
Fewer cars
that’s not going to happen. if we’re going to think up solutions, let’s think up ones that are likely or reasonable.
*in cities
less car usage in cities can definitely happen
A societal change against commuting for work would help too. I have a half hour commute now which is kind of as good as it gets around here unless u work on the same town but I used to drive. A hour one way for work every day. I know people that drove more than that on a daily basis!
It’s already happening, at least in Europe, cities have special limited traffic zone where only residents can enter and some cities are starting to gradually ban EURO 3, 4, 5, and even 6.
That is the most reasonable and achievable solution. Nothing else would really change things, as tires need to be made of durable materials that shed durable microparticles as they wear. Even trains do this, but because they carry people more efficiently, the impact is lessened. It’s never wise to bet on magic materials when the magic materials of the past are at the root of the problem.
We need a decades long change in both the economy and the way we live to fix most environmental problems. The solutions always exist, but we rarely implement them because power decides the future, not a quest for human well-being. Unless some country gets more powerful or some people become richer, it doesn’t happen. In this case, a solution will only be reached when cars are so disfavored by the country and market that the transition happens naturally.
Mass transit is a likely and reasonable solution, but they want you in cars, slaves to the oil magnates. We used to have e fully electric transit grids before the 50’s until cars began to be widely adopted. Car companies killed them off.
We also had more trollies in mid-sized cities until the tire lobby persuaded city governments to invest in buses.
They didn’t persuade them, they bought the companies and then killed them off. My town had a pretty extensive trolley system, the remnants of which still exist as bike and walking trails further from downtown. The infrastructure for it is still visible and it’s a painful reminder of what could have been. Instead we get a routine traffic problem in a town of only 160k.
That’s just the easiest solution.
Using other materials are less convenient.
Our current car use per capita is unsustainable.
Either we reduce it, or we reduce human reproduction and survival rates.
Yeah fuck you buddy its already happening whether you like it or not. Car dependency is dying and public transport and walkable cities are our future.
You don’t like it go move to your local dying ponzi scheme suburban stroad.
Cars that fly above the road
I don’t trust normal drivers, you really trust people to fly their cars safely?
I’m not talking about full blown flying. Just hover above the road a few feet.
Trains
Steel tyres. They’d also look better!
Metal would wear out too fast on asphalt/concrete though. What if we used metal tyres on metal roads? Less friction, less abrasion! It’d be expensive though to replace the whole road. Maybe just a pair of strips the same width as the tyre spacing. Cars could even connect to each other to reduce aerodynamic drag… Nah, would never work