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New Study Shows "Pollution from Tire Wear 1,000 Times Worse than Exhaust Emissions"

By Rain Noe - March 12, 2020

in Sustainability | Cars

UK-based Emissions Analytics, an independent testing organization that measures real-world vehicle emissions, has determined that tire wear causes more pollution than exhaust from the tailpipe.

Photo by Jiafeng Wang on Unsplash

Watchdog orgs and government regulations keep car companies on their toes for the devil we know, tailpipe emissions. Manufacturers play ball and internal combustion engines seem to get more efficient each year. But "vehicle tyre wear pollution is completely unregulated," EA writes. Yet "harmful particle matter from tyres – and also brakes – is a very serious and growing environmental problem."

How serious of a problem? Here's what their testing revealed about non-exhaust emissions (NEEs):

"Using a popular family hatchback running on brand new, correctly inflated tyres, we found that the car emitted 5.8 grams per kilometer of particles.

"Compared with regulated exhaust emission limits of 4.5 milligrams per kilometer, the completely unregulated tyre wear emission is higher by a factor of over 1,000."

Photo by Tim Meyer on Unsplash

They reckon those figures are even worse in real-world driving (i.e. bigger vehicles with bigger tires, and/or underinflated tires and shoddy roads causing tires and brakes to shed more particulate matter). And it's gotta be galling, to anyone who's ponied up for an electric car, to learn that they're still causing tons of pollution.

Automobile and tire manufacturers are unlikely to address this on their own. Until a powerful politician, government or watchdog org takes NEEs up as an issue, we'll have to continue breathing in brakepad dust and tire particles.

via The Drive

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Keith Frankie

5 years ago

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If a typical set of cheap tires lasts 50,000 km (30,000 miles) then according to this study they would emit 290 kg (640 lb) of pollution over the life of the tire. Google says a light car tire weighs 20 lb (9 kg). There's a conservation of mass issue going on here.

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- James Carruthers
  
  Keith Frankie
  
  5 years ago
  
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  Could it include bits of the road? Maybe, but I don't think that's what they're saying.
  
  This actually sounds more like a good-news story about how ridiculously clean new cars are. Or a bad-news one about loony Greens with no understanding of the concept of "diminishing returns."
  
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- Jean Marie
  
  Keith Frankie
  
  5 years ago
  
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  Yeah I didn't understand this part as well.. What exactly do they mean by 5.8 grams of particles? Are you sure they didn't mean 5.8 milligrams?
  
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Ross Oliver

4 years ago

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I think this part explains why this is a severely non-representative experiment:
https://www.emissionsanalytics.com/news/2020/1/28/tyres-not-tailpipe
"As we were originally concerned that the mass loss levels would be too small to measure, we stacked the decks by choosing the cheapest tyres, ballasted the car heavily, chose a track with average surface quality and designed a test cycle with high speeds and much cornering."
"Driving a 2011 VW Golf 320kms at high road speeds on the track resulted in a mass loss of 1,844g which equates 5.8g per km."
So yeah, drive a heavily loaded car very fast on a race track, and you will scrub a lot of material off the tires, perhaps close to the entire life of the tire in more normal driving. Spread that 1.8 kg loss over a normal 50,000 km tire life, and the rate comes out to 0.037 grams per kilometer. But that number is nowhere near shocking enough to get bloggers and the press to write about your study and give your organization lots of free publicity.

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Kyle Harvey

5 years ago

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Something doesn't add up. If tires last around 50,000km and they are emitting 5.8g/km in particulates. That would be 290kg thats over 600lbs of particulates. Huh? I must be missing something.

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- Jean Marie
  
  Kyle Harvey
  
  5 years ago
  
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  Based on this image, they seem to imply that road dust is part of the factor.
  
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