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posted by cmn32480 on Friday November 06 2015, @05:18PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-other-options-do-we-have dept.

"Microplastics" is a term used to describe the tiny particles of plastic waste. The problem is that these don't break down organically - they just become smaller (to the molecular level). There's famously the "plastic soup" in oceans that contains such particles.

A recent Norwegian* study looked into the originators of these microplastic. Surprisingly enough: car tyres. There are other sources, but they contribute significantly less. According to the infographic, it breaks down as follows:
- Car tyres: 2250 tons
- Paint/maintenance of ships: 650 tons
- loss from plastic production: 400 tons
- painting/maintenance of buildings+infrastructure: 310 tons
- laundry: 110 tons
- waste treatment: 100 tons
... and some small change.
This means that car tyres alone, by themselves, account for a staggering 55% of microplastic waste.
To put this in perspective: Germans and Norwegians (both) use up about 2 kilos of car tyres per person per year.

Note: These numbers seem particular to Norway - overall yearly production of microplastics seems (unfortunately) vastly greater, see the below-linked German report (table on page 33) for some EU estimates.

* There's apparently a German study corroborating this. The only one I could find is here (English, downloads a PDF).

PS: For the pedantics


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @10:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 06 2015, @10:32PM (#259702)

    And nobody could do nothing. Because the car is the holy cow of the 1900s.

  • (Score: 2) by khchung on Saturday November 07 2015, @03:40AM

    by khchung (457) on Saturday November 07 2015, @03:40AM (#259803)

    Because the car is the holy cow of the 1900s.

    Only in the US of A.

    Public transportation works in most of the world, so driving is a luxury in many places around the world. So even if some place have similar ownership ratio (i.e. cars per family) as the US, most place would still have fewer average miles driven per year because you don't *need* to drive to work every single day as you have to option to use public transport.