A closer look
Rubber tires on standard cars and trucks are actually one of the absolute largest sources of microplastic pollution in the entire world. Every single time a driver accelerates, brakes, or turns the steering wheel, tiny invisible flakes of synthetic rubber are violently ripped off the treads and scattered onto the asphalt to eventually wash into the local waterways. Environmentalists spend massive amounts of energy shaming people for using disposable plastic drinking straws, while virtually completely ignoring the millions of tons of tire dust actively choking out the ocean ecosystem on a daily basis. The electric vehicle revolution is ironically making this specific problem much worse, since those giant batteries make the cars incredibly heavy and cause them to shred through their rubber tires even faster than traditional gas guzzlers. So while you sit in traffic feeling incredibly smug about saving the planet with your zero-emission luxury sedan, your wheels are quietly shedding a blizzard of toxic plastic directly into the local drinking supply
