O.T -tire wear

Gobo · Sep 11, 2018

There are many millions of tires running up and down the roads and highways every day. They wear out. Wear does that material go to? It does not seem to be sticking to the roads, the ruts would seem to rule that out.

Larry Dickman · Sep 11, 2018

I Think McDonalds puts it in their meat.

Ries · Sep 11, 2018

some of it bonds to the roads.
most is dust and small particles that end up in the landscape, the atmosphere, and, mostly, in the water.
which means, we drink it.
we breathe it.
we eat it.
fish eat it.
plants absorb it.

none of which is particularly healthy for the absorbers.

Gobo · Sep 11, 2018

There must be a Godawful lot of it generated every year.

Gordon B. Clarke · Sep 11, 2018

"If you drive a typical number of miles, somewhere around 12,000-15,000 miles annually, a tire's tread will wear out in three to four years, long before the rubber compound does. But if you only drive 6,000 miles a year, or have a car that you only drive on weekends, aging tires could be an issue."

rons · Sep 11, 2018

The wear patterns develop faster when you drive with spurts of acceleration/braking.

CalG · Sep 11, 2018

Gobo said:
There are many millions of tires running up and down the roads and highways every day. They wear out. Wear does that material go to? It does not seem to be sticking to the roads, the ruts would seem to rule that out.

There are "bugs" that eat the stuff. microbes, bacteria and such.

Without them, the rubber "drifts" would be five feet high on back country roads.

Similar "bugs" are the work horses of petroleum spill clean up.

DDoug · Sep 11, 2018

"O.T -tire wear.....Where does it all go ?"
Might have been a wee bit better title ?

Try and think before typing eh ?

Gobo · Sep 12, 2018

sorry- I was texting while driving.

JoeE. · Sep 12, 2018

Gobo said:
sorry- I was texting while driving.

If I'da seen you doing that, I'd have rolled my window down and threw my beer can at you!

GregSY · Sep 12, 2018

The tires on my Hellcat don't last 3 or 4 years.

Trboatworks · Sep 13, 2018

Oxygen is persuasive.
One of my old friends was a environmental chemist and probably has the answer.
I am betting though that oxidation breaks the rubber down to some group of byproducts which are further degraded with time.

Degradation of Rubber

Entropy is a Bear..

Gobo · Sep 13, 2018

Trboatworks said:
Oxygen is persuasive.
One of my old friends was a environmental chemist and probably has the answer.
I am betting though that oxidation breaks the rubber down to some group of byproducts which are further degraded with time.

Degradation of Rubber

Entropy is a Bear..

For me, entropy is about 9 beers.

Dan from Oakland · Sep 13, 2018

I can tell ya where it goes- into the air and it settles on everything in the vicinity of the highway. Our shop is about 50 feet from a major highway thru Oakland and we get a fine black dust that settles on everything. Some of that is exhaust particles for sure from the heavy truck traffic but I'm convinces a majority of it is tire dust. Our roof gutters fill up with the stuff and it has to be scooped out with a trowel a few times per year.

72bwhite · Sep 13, 2018

ever seen that goo that comes off the road after the first rain

CalG · Sep 13, 2018

Dan from Oakland said:
I can tell ya where it goes- into the air and it settles on everything in the vicinity of the highway. Our shop is about 50 feet from a major highway thru Oakland and we get a fine black dust that settles on everything. Some of that is exhaust particles for sure from the heavy truck traffic but I'm convinces a majority of it is tire dust. Our roof gutters fill up with the stuff and it has to be scooped out with a trowel a few times per year.

And where does it go after you scoop it out?

I already told ya. BUGS eat it!

The dining takes time ;-)

john.k · Sep 14, 2018

Tyre rubber contains a lot,maybe 50% of wt of petroleum oil......as the tyre ages the light oil vaporizes,and the rubber cracks..........eventually ,the oil is gone and the rubber becomes hard and begins to disintegrate............a good example of this is an old truck left out in a field....a grass fire wont burn the tyres,they dont light unless heat is extreme,where as a new vehicle will easily catch fire,think burnt out firetrucks,while an old junker is untouched.

72bwhite · Sep 14, 2018

tires crack because of ozonalisis
you learn that first semester of organic chem,
also why pvc pipe gets brittle in sun light.

most organic compounds can be broken down by bacteria mostly

with the notable exceptions being chlorinated benzine aka pcbs
Teflon is another one that doesn't get broken down by microbes

Trboatworks · Sep 14, 2018

The dust has much more surface area to chemical and biological decomposition to work on than say a tire which sits in a field seemingly unchanged for a century.
Things being what they are I am betting there is a body of research which has addressed just this question.
A literature search is in order I suppose..

As said above- grinding tires to dust probably crosses that line from trash as a whole tire represents to a true pollutant.
One would ask if the fine debris reaching the coastal waterways and oceans float or settle out of the water column.

5 axis Fidia guy · Sep 14, 2018

I understand the curiosity, but there are bigger problems with our planet to worry about.

O.T -tire wear

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