A further issue that requires careful attention is that EVs (electric vehicles) produce non-exhaust pollutants and will consume tyres more quickly than ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles.
A London-based firm by the name of The Tyre Collective has developed a gadget that is mounted behind the wheel of a car, truck, or bus. For the time being, they are calling it the Box. The Box is intended to trap pollutants from the tyres, a frequently disregarded source.
Although every car loses a few tyre fragments as it rolls, the phrase “where the rubber meets the road” is somewhat misleading because most passenger car tyres have very little natural rubber in them. They are really made of a mixture of petrochemicals, the byproducts of which eventually end up in the land, air, water, and seas.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, tyres are the second biggest source of microplastic pollution in the oceans. A 2017 study found that worldwide tyre emissions per person averaged 0.81 kilogrammes annually, ranging from 0.23 kilogrammes in India to 4.7 kilogrammes in the United States. Despite being small by definition, microplastics are a sneaky source of poisons that scientists are only now beginning to understand.
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