I participate in river cleanups and one constant is that you always seem to find tires. Some are quite old and have been hiding out of the way and are unearthed or brought into the river by floods. I always assumed these were more of an eyesore and a nuisance breeding ground for mosquitoes but figured they were inert besides that. I was wrong. I looked into it and found all kinds of information about how tires in waterways are not a good thing. Also, I found reference to tire wear particles which come off with each rotation of the tire, being problematic as well. Odds are the tires in the river are not the real concern but all the wear particles washing in are the real problem. I wonder how easy it would be to make tires form less harmful materials without compromising the integrity of the tires.
Some of the rivers I have helped clean are considered premiere rainbow trout streams. This species is explicitly mentioned in the first article but I am sure the toxicity impacts other species just as much. There has also been a major crayfish and mussel decline in MO and no one has a perfect explanation for this.
Since car exhaust contains next to zero particles (aside from diesels), itâs no surprise that tires create a lot more. Iâm more concerned about the chemicals in those tires. Thatâs where changes might help.
There are known âindicator speciesâ for particular environmental pollution that are first to be affected. Frogs are known to be an early indicator. It wouldnât surprise me to hear that trout, being a very clean water species of fish, are more susceptible to environmental pollution than other, more robust species (e.g. catfish or carp for example).
Tires already have to try to do a large number of things well (so that tires like the Michelin CrossClimate2 are somewhat of a miracle in my opinion). Adding another factor to consider almost certainly canât be easy.
So much other stuff to be concerned about. We worry about lead and mercury in the fish here so just buy them. The flint stones come to mind though with the stone wheels as we proceed back to the Stone Age anyway.
The last estimate I saw, for 2016, estimated we use about 20 million tons of rubber plus some serious chemical additives in tire manufacturing each year and all that stuff ends up âsomewhereâ.
Chunk rubber and old casings are pretty obvious and already somewhat regulated but not the microrubber and toxic chemicals from tred wear on the roads which eventually work their way into the air and the water.
Nobody was concerned about the now banned lead or MTBE gas additives until we realized they were doing some pretty nasty things to our health and water and manufacturers were forced to come up with less toxic alternatives.
We didnât have to go back to horse and buggys of Flintstone cars then and I doubt it will happen now
Itâs hard to compare the effects of air pollution to the adverse effects of water pollution on aquatic life. We breath air, and whatever we breath goes deep into our lungs. Most of the pollutants that we breath in, just goes right back out I expect. But some of it lodges in the lungs, and some is absorbed into the bloodstream, where it goes directly (unfiltered) to the brain. Tires in the water leach out chemicals and break down over time causing bits of tires to go downstream, but it seems like they would also provide some protection for aquatic life as well.
At least one of the âspecial sauceâ additives âwashesâ off the tires directly into the water and into the water that weâll all drink. (Yep, even if you have a well or buying âSpring Waterâ that stuff will eventually be percolating into your tap water.)
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The disposal of Tire Carcases is also a problem but itâs already been dealt with. That $2 Tire Disposal Fee to dispose of them correctly and keep them out of the landfills and streams.
The Tredwear Rubber isnât a significant problem because rubber is pretty inert ,except for the âspecial sauceâ chemicals that get released as the tire rubber gets ground down.
So the heart of the problem isnât the tire or the rubber but the additive chemicals and the solution is to find alternatives that arenât quite so nasty.
My expectation is that this will go about the same way as the past.
EPA points out that thereâs a risk, the manufacturers deny it, the lawyers get called in to fight (and make their boat payment), in a scene out of an opera politicians/advocates decry it as the next step towards Communism/Fascism and in a couple of years they have another solution and price of tires goes up a couple of bucks.
This is exactly how it went down with the banning of Lead, MTBE and the substitution of Ethanol in gas and after all the drama, my 2005 requiring Premium is still running just fine.
I am with you and not a fan of more government regulation. It all seems to be a big power grab if you ask me. There are a few things that might be misunderstood.
I live in Missouri. The tire disposal fee is paid AFTER the tire is used up, not when it is bought. Batteries have a core charge far exceeding scrap value at the time of sale so it makes sense to return them when they are dead and you buy a new battery. I am not a fan of government regulation but why not charge the disposal fee at the time of sale just as is done with batteries? All tires will eventually need to be disposed of so this makes sense. They could also charge a 50 cent or $1 extra fee to pay into a fund where anyone could bring a tire in for disposal and get 50 cents or a dollar per tire they turn in. The roadside dumps and such would quickly be picked up by the druggies looking for a quick buck to pay for their next fix and maybe keep them from stealing copper wiring, air conditioners, and catalytic converters.
Most people donât even realize there is a charge to get rid of their old tires. They just pay the bill for the new tires and go on with life. It is the few looking to save a buck that ruin it.
How much rubber in modern tires is actually natural rubber and not some synthetic analog? I agree that natural rubber is probably relatively harmless and that the chemical additives are likely the main problem.
I take anything I read these days with a grain of salt. I think EVs for example have uses but this has overall become one of many big scams. They are energy intensive to produce, mining the raw materials is not really eco-friendly, is often done by child or slave labor with no protections in place, and cost more than a gas car in the long run depending on the use case.
One of my good friends lives right in the heart of San Francisco. Of course they banned plastic straws to save the world but homeless camps with rampant drug use and unmanaged trash/human waste galore gets a completely free pass. The modern âgreenâ movement is filled with so many double standards that it isnât even funny. I try to do my part but am not going to go crazy with some of the nonsense that is being proposed and do not support the government power grabs that go along with this nonsense.
It is something of interest to me though that tires may actually be a bigger problem for the environment than carbon based fuels. Yes, tires have quite the job to do and it is amazing they put up with the use/abuse they get for tens of thousands of miles before needing to be retired. Any modification in their formulation needs to be taken seriously.
On another note, I participated in a river cleanup yesterday and only picked up one complete tire and a fragment of another. One other tire and a fragment was recovered by others. That is actually a pretty good indicator as some rivers would give up dozens or hundreds of tires over the the same 5 mile distance we covered. That being said, I had some huge roll of padding or floor underlayment that weighed a ton and took up most of the canoe. The rest of the canoe was pretty much full of small random stuff.
I also picked up one of the two cans of motor oil found in the river. That is probably worse for the river than a tire to be honest. This is especially annoying because it is free to dispose of used oil at any business that sells oil (state law) and current economic conditions have actually made it profitable for businesses that take used oil in and recycle it.
Unfortunately, this is a true story. This theme runs throughout northern Calif, not just SF. For example a property owner can be harassed for years for having a smattering of weeds growing in their driveway cracks, authorities claiming âfire hazardâ, but just down the street an encampment of dozens of cardboard houses, litter-strewn, is simply ignored. Voters would change this situation by giving the elected jobs to other people if they could, but they canât. The alternate party insists on holding to policies that most of Calif voters simply cannot support.
Look at the tire prices on Tire Rack, they collect the state disposal fee at the time of sale. Each state is different, the location selected was St Louis, MO.
Years ago, I was charged a disposal fee at Costco when purchasing a set of tires. I didnât bring any old tires to the tire shop, only a new set of wheels still in the boxes.
Maybe they changed this in MO within the last couple years. I bought new tires and told them to give me the best of them for a spare and they told me they would knock one disposal fee off the bill the last time around. I keep a spare from my last set around. I think I forgot to bring the old one and and just took it to a shop the next time I went and paid them to take it.
Even some of that nonsense has made it to Missouri. I am glad I live out of city limits and donât have to deal with that crap. I hear in CA taxes and such make buying a new car so expensive that people keep older and less efficient models far longer than normal. She they charge money to save the world and have the opposite impact!
Facebook âcommunity standardsâ are a fine example of such double standards as well. I report scams, ads for stolen credit card numbers, illegal drugs including fentanyl and date rape drugs, and other bad stuff and they do not seem to care. Say something they disagree with and you get a 3 day ban like that!
Ok, worry about the rubber on the highways but what about the bacteria being deposited from waste disposal. Or the flesh eating amoeba in the water we see every summer. Like I said, there are other things to worry about bu5 have it your way. Death is the only way out.
