- cross-posted to:
- climate@slrpnk.net
- cross-posted to:
- climate@slrpnk.net
cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/20009882
Car tires shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment. Urgent action is needed
Electric cars are not THE solution.
cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/20009882
Car tires shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment. Urgent action is needed
Electric cars are not THE solution.
I was unaware rubber products were considered micro plastics, I mean it makes sense, but for some reason I just never put that together
Tires haven’t been made of rubber for a long time.
What if I told you the gum that you chew was also made from plastic.
I’d be more surprised if you told me it wasn’t. At this point, living in the American Dystopia, I expect anything obtainable to a Proletarian to be at least partially artificial and likely carcinogenic.
You can still buy him made of chicle.
I mean I don’t chew gum so… Nothing much?
They’re both made of long polymer chains - chains of repeating carbon-based molecules - but rubbers are synthesized in a way that makes it easy for these chains to slip past each other and spring back. In plastics, the chains are much more tangled and bonded together.
It really makes you see how the petrochemical industry kills two birds with one stone here
Two birds and a fish
There has been some recent investment in trying to make plant based rubber in the US again:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelharley/2022/09/08/bridgestone-develops-guayule-shrub-as-sustainable-alternative-to-rubber-trees/