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Quantifying tire wear particle dynamics: insights from a hydrological-based material flow analysis in urban watersheds
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Tiny plastic bits from car tires wash off roads and into waterways every time it rains, and this study found that dense city centers create way more of this pollution (up to 15 times more) than suburban areas—with a single heavy storm after a dry spell able to flush out 30% of a whole year's worth of tire particles in just one day. Since tire particles are a major source of microplastics entering our water systems (and potentially our food and drinking water), knowing exactly where and when they spike can help cities target cleanup efforts, like better storm drain filters, where they'll do the most good.
Abstract Tire wear particles (TWPs) constitute a significant fraction of total microplastic release, necessitating quantification for effective management. While material flow analysis (MFA) quantifies their pathways from generation to environmental sinks, existing approaches apply uniform transfer coefficients across entire regions, obscuring critical spatial heterogeneity essential for assessing ecosystem exposure. This study developed a spatially explicit, process-based MFA framework by integrating mechanistic TWP generation modeling with hydrological rainfall-runoff processes to quantify TWP generation, road surface accumulation, and storm-driven mobilization in Hong Kong. Results indicate an annual per capita TWP generation of 0.28 kg/person/year, notably lower than the global average. Over half of the generated TWPs were mobilized by stormwater runoff after road surface deposition. The hydrological transport pathway to surface water exhibits pronounced spatial and event-driven heterogeneity. Spatially, while suburban districts with extensive road networks dominated absolute emissions (24%), dense urban cores exhibited generation intensities 15 times higher and washoff intensities 18 times greater than outlying low-density areas. In terms of event dynamics, storm-event modeling demonstrates that extreme precipitation following prolonged dry periods can mobilize 30% of annual TWP loads within 24 h, fundamentally reorganizing pollution distributions. This framework provides a transferable tool for pinpointing TWP hotspots and informing targeted mitigation strategies in urban watersheds worldwide.
More Papers Like This
Relevance of tyre wear particles to the total content of microplastics transported by runoff in a high-imperviousness and intense vehicle traffic urban area.
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Researchers characterized microplastics and tire wear particles (TWPs) transported by urban stormwater runoff in a highly impervious catchment, finding that TWPs made up a substantial fraction of the total microplastic load in sediments of a stormwater detention reservoir. The study underscores the contribution of road traffic to microplastic pollution entering waterways.
Microplastics and Tire Wear Particles in Urban Stormwater: Abundance, Characteristics, and Potential Mitigation Strategies
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Researchers measured microplastic concentrations in urban stormwater and found levels ranging from about 4 to 59 particles per liter, with tire wear particles making up roughly 95% of all particles detected. Microlitter capture devices reduced microplastic loads by 35 to 88%, and constructed wetlands provided additional removal. The study suggests that targeted stormwater treatment infrastructure could meaningfully reduce the flow of microplastics into rivers and coastal waters.
Urban wash-off of tire wear particles
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Researchers used a rainfall simulator to study how tire wear particles, an important class of microplastics, are washed off road surfaces during storm events. They found that low surface roughness, high rainfall intensity, and low slope produced the fastest and most complete mobilization of tire wear particles. The study reveals that larger tire particles moved faster than smaller ones, and flow depth was the most important factor governing wash-off behavior.
Tracking microplastics across urban drainage systems and highway runoff: a snapshot assessment
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Every time it rains, tiny plastic bits from tires and other sources wash off roads and city streets into our water systems—and this study found that road runoff carries especially high levels of tire-wear particles, most of it in extremely fine pieces smaller than a human hair. Standard water treatment methods only removed 14-42% of these microplastics (though adding a filtration step helped significantly), meaning much of this plastic pollution likely ends up in rivers and lakes. This matters because these tiny particles can carry chemicals and may eventually make their way into the water and ecosystems humans depend on, so better filtering technology could help reduce our
Relevance of tyre wear particles to the total content of microplastics transported by runoff in a high-imperviousness urban area.
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This study, published in Portuguese, assessed the relevance of tire wear particles (TWPs) relative to the total microplastic burden transported by river systems in Brazil. The research found that TWPs represent a significant fraction of the microplastics measured in urban and peri-urban watercourses, with concentrations elevated near major roadways. The findings highlight tire wear as a major but underappreciated contributor to freshwater and ultimately marine microplastic pollution in rapidly urbanizing countries.
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