Mastodawn

Tim McCormack Oct 1, 2023

[EDIT: Ugh, this turns out to be wrong -- it's actually 78% of 11%. See page 89 of https://www.systemiq.earth/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/BreakingThePlasticWave_MainReport.pdf -- misleading representation. 8.5% ain't nothing, but it's nothing like a majority. Thanks to those who replied to correct this!]

The good news: The majority of ocean microplastics come from one source, which means we could dramatically reduce their occurrence by focusing on just one solution.

The bad news: It's car tires. https://www.thedrive.com/news/tire-dust-makes-up-the-majority-of-ocean-microplastics-study-finds

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tone1928

@timmc An interesting discussion on microplastics. It’s unfortunate that the article focused so much on EVs. My own experience is that overall particulate pollution would be much less with an EV. The brake pads and rotors on my EV will probably last the life of the vehicle and the first set of tyres will last 90,000km. Previous diesel car with same tyres managed maybe 60,000km and chewed through multiple brake and rotor sets doing similar work.