Every year, billions of vehicles worldwide shed an estimated 6 million tons of tire fragments. These tiny flakes of plastic, generated by the wear and tear of normal driving, eventually accumulate in the soil, in rivers and lakes, and even in our food. Researchers in South China recently found tire-derived chemicals in most human urine samples.
Is it technically micro plastics? Vulcanized rubber particulates?
There is a significant problem with media-reporting and scientific-studies being vetted for accuracy and peer-reviews.
Plastics are organic polymerized compounds usually I think that fall under Alkyl, isoprenes, monomers ?
Rubbers are organic polymerized compounds usually under elastomers / neoprenes / butadienes ?
We NEED more nuance and not fearmongering,scaremongering and FUD about the man-made pollutants.
Rubber pollution is a thing and plastics pollution is also a thing. How do we deal with each of them may require DIFFERENT strategies and NOT CRAZY-SHIT.
Its not only rubber for car tires. There’s a lot of extras to add longevity, and change performance in certain conditions.
Plastic is mostly made from hydrocarbon chains. So are rubber polymers it seems.
Not sure if it matters if the plastic is from a tree or pumped from a really old tree.