Tread Lightly: The Road to Pollution Starts With Your Tyres

You have swapped your plastic bags and ditched the straws. But there is a source of pollution you cannot opt out of, and it is happening on every road in Britain, every single day.

Although we call them rubber, modern vehicle tyres are actually made from a complex blend of synthetic materials, chemicals and polymers. Every time a car pulls away from the lights, it leaves something behind. Not just exhaust fumes, but thousands of microscopic plastic particles, shed from the tyres from friction. When it rains, those particles wash off the road surface into drains, rivers,  and are carried out to sea. They are, in every meaningful sense, microplastics.

The scale of the problem in the UK is significant. Tyre wear is estimated to account for around 65% of all microplastics released into UK surface waters, which is equivalent to roughly 18,000 tonnes, each year. A separate study found that vehicle tyres are the single biggest source of microplastic pollution in UK rivers, lakes and coastal waters. With 330 billion road miles driven in the UK every year, and vehicle numbers set to double by 2050, the maths tells a scary and irrefutable story. 

It is not just the plastic itself that makes tyre particles particularly concerning, but the chemical cocktail that comes along for the ride. Tyres contain over 400 chemicals and compounds, many of them carcinogenic, and some genuinely alarming. One additive, 6PPD, degrades in the environment to form a toxic compound which has been shown to be dangerous to wildlife when it runs off into waterways. Research from the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter has classified tyre microparticles as high concern pollutants, with studies showing they affect the reproduction and development of aquatic invertebrates.

Electric vehicles too are not off the hook. Because they are heavier, EVs tend to produce more tyre wear particles than conventional cars, meaning the transition to electric is not the clean break for road pollution that many assume.

Individuals can help by driving smoothly, maintaining correct tyre pressure and avoiding unnecessary weight in the vehicle. But the real solutions lie with manufacturers and regulators. The EU introduced tyre microplastic emission limits under its Euro 7 rules, which will come into force for new cars in November. The UK has yet to follow suit.

+++++++++++++++++

For more information contact: info@scarabtrust.org.uk

Images:

garage car wash car smoke steam - Photo by Pixabay (ST ref: 1086)

tires, rubber, junk - Image by Agnes Wojcik from Pixabay (ST ref: 1361)