When Driving, Tires Emit Pollution. And EVs Make the Problem Worse
A London startup’s device aims to capture tire emissions from cars, trucks, delivery vans and buses.
Rows of automobile tires at a retouching workshop in France.
Photographer: Nathan Laine/BloombergThe Tyre Collective does not yet have a name for its device. Hanson Cheng, one of the London-based startup’s three co-founders, calls it a “box.” Built to attach behind the wheel of a car, truck, van or bus, it’s designed to capture emissions from an oft-overlooked source: tires.
Every vehicle sheds tiny bits of its tires as it rolls, but “where the rubber meets the road” is a bit of a misnomer: The tires on most passenger vehicles contain little natural rubber. Instead, they’re made from a stew of petrochemicals, particles of which ultimately wind up in soil, air, waterways and oceans.