I have to replace my tires every 60 000-100 000 KM as the tires wear down and the rubber comes off as I drive. If this is happening with all cars, why arnt the roads coated in rubber? Is somebody cleaning the tire rubber off the road? Is it getting washed away from the rain and into drains/the ocean? How long does it take for rubber to degrade that has come off the tire?
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This answer is slightly off-topic, but related to your question: Airplane tires absolutely deposit rubber on runways, and it’s a regular chore for airports to [remove the rubber.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airfield_rubber_removal) If they don’t, rubber on the runway will significantly affect braking performance.
Airplane tires are subjected to much greater forces than car tires, though. Those tires lose so much rubber that they need to be replaced every 500 landings at best, which equates to a few months for most commercial airliners.
Tire dust and lager particles are incredibly polluting. Add to that the fact that only <10% of the tire actually serves it’s purpose (to keep car moving forward and stopping) and the rest is just waste that for the most part is not managed correctly, they are probably one of the most polluting products. Here’s an article that summarizes how polluting and toxic rubber from tires is:
https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals
They are coated with rubber.It’s just rubber dust. It is one of the top sources of microplastic contamination in the environment.
And of course, it doesn’t stay on the roads. It blows all over.
It’s in your lungs, making you cough. Although electric cars don’t make nasty gases out the exhaust pipe, they still make tyre dust, often more as their batteries make them heavier than equivalent internal combustion engine vehicle.
They are, but it also blows away from wind created by cars, washes away with rain and snow.
Roads are covered in rubber. Literally every spot where tires touch, there is a layer of rubber.
In some places this is very apparent; on turns, lights/stop signs, high speed ramps, etc, etc.
The roads are coated with rubber, and not just the skid marks you sometimes see. The rubber wears off as a fine dust, carried by air currents, and spread over a substantial area, some of it being road — you even inhale some of it. It washes away from rain into storm drains and water ways.
Take a nail file and file your nails. Is the file coated in nails? Well, yes, but it’s a powder, not a sticky film. If you blow on the file, the nail powder will fly away and it’s like it was never there.
It’s the same with tires. The rubber that wears off of them is in the form of fine poweder. That powder is then blown away. The tire itself will often blow it up into the air as it’s moving.
Tires lose rubber constantly in the form of rubber “dust”. Many years ago while doing a motorcycle course, the instructor said if it starts raining, pull over for half and hour while the rubber dust gets washed away. The most slippery time is right when the rain starts and loosens the rubber dust.
It’s the same reason the inside of your home isn’t covered in dead skin. Small particles are hard to see and get blown around a lot.
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