How much microplastic is generated during mountain biking?
How much microplastic is generated during mountain biking?
Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have, for the first time, provided concrete figures on the abrasion of mountain bike tyres in off-road conditions. Their findings contribute to a better understanding of the global microplastic cycle. They report on their research in the journal „Science of ...
So if you take someone in the United States, driving an average of 25,000 km per year, they are generating something like 2,750 g of microplastics. If that same person mountain bikes 25 km per week for a year (1,300 km) they are generating something like 46 g of microplastics. I’m all for making mountain biking more environmentally friendly, but it looks like a rounding error on our microplastic emissions when looking at other sources. Combined with giving people more reason to protect nature, I’d guess it’s a net positive. Here in the US, wet need to fix our land use and transportation, as car dependency is not compatible with a livable planet.
They're plastic?? I always thought they were rubber.
Rubber counts as microplastic pollution, because it has the same effects: It will not biodegrade, is not healthy to have in your body, but will accumulate there
Butyl rubber. Iirc, it's combined with plastics for bike tires. I'm hoping we can find biodegradable alternatives for cars and bikes. That said, the impact of bikes and ebikes is most likely far smaller than the millions of cars (including EVs) on the road across continents.
Ideally, we need to make rail a huge priority across the north and south American contingents. Rail and bikes will take a chunk out of microplastic production.