the Tyre Collective – combating the microplastic pollutant that we are forgetting

London Imperial College London Royal College of Art

. As vehicles move along our roads, over time as friction occurs, they shed small fragments of tyre material. This tyre tread consists of a variety of compounds that behave as microplastics (less than five millimeter particles of plastic material). When it rains, these particles (in microplastic form) wash off the road surface and into waterways, ending up in the ocean. It has been estimated that the UK alone produces 68,000 tons of tyre-wear fragments every year, and up to 19,000 tons of this ends up in our waterways, rivers and seas. Once in the waterways there is a strong possibility that these fragments of plastic will be ingested by marine life, and subsequently eaten by humans (causing ingestion of chemicals and harmful pollutants). Microplastics finding their way into surface water is not the