• LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 hours ago

    I can’t imagine much microplatics are getting chipped off of them. The tires have thousands of pounds of pressure being put on small surface areas when you round corners, where as a plastic bottleneck can dolphin into the water if hit by a large wave and not nearly as much friction placed on it.

    How I imagine it

    • GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
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      1 hour ago

      so plastic floating in a salty ocean, being hit with wave after wave of hundreds if not thousands of tons of pressure 24 hours a day 7 days a week for literal decades all while slamming into other plastic bottles will release less plastic than tires?

      IDK. I think a wider study should be done.

      50-75 trillion pieces of plastic exist in the ocean today and makes up 80% of all marine pollution.

      plastic itself isn’t easily recycled either. tires on vehicles can be reliably recycled into other products like asphalt, roof shingles, new tires, etc.

      I think if the concern is about microplastics, there are bigger pollutants at hand that need attention before car tires.