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Tire wear particles in the marine environment: sources, migration, ecological risk and control strategy
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Researchers reviewed the environmental fate of tire wear particles (TWPs) in marine systems, tracing their transport from road surfaces via atmospheric deposition and hydrological flow into seawater, sediments, and marine food webs, and evaluating emerging control strategies including green material engineering and standardized monitoring protocols.
With the global proliferation of vehicular transportation, tire wear particles (TWPs) have emerged as a pervasive class of emerging contaminants in the environment. Primarily originating from terrestrial road networks, these anthropogenic particulates undergo complex environmental transport through atmospheric deposition and hydrological processes, ultimately accumulating in marine compartments through seawater column retention, benthic sedimentation, and bioaccumulation within marine trophic webs. The environmental impacts of TWPs manifest through multiple mechanisms including physically effects on marine organisms, chemically leaching of toxic tire components, and ecologically bioaccumulation and biomagnification. Current research priorities emphasize the development of standardized monitoring protocols for TWPs quantification and the implementation of source control strategies through green material engineering. This review systematically examines the environmental fate, ecological impacts, and risk mitigation approaches associated with marine TWPs pollution, providing critical insights for developing evidence-based management frameworks.
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Tire wear particles in the aquatic environment - A review on generation, analysis, occurrence, fate and effects
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Researchers reviewed available science on tire wear particles (TWP) — tiny fragments shed from tires during driving — finding that Europe alone generates over 1.3 million tonnes per year, but critical data on environmental concentrations, transport to waterways, and aquatic toxicity remain too limited for robust ecological risk assessment.
Tire wear particles in different water environments: occurrence, behavior, and biological effects—a review and perspectives
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This review examines tire wear particles, a major but often overlooked source of microplastics in water environments. Tire particles release toxic chemicals as they break down in water and can harm aquatic organisms, but most research has focused only on the chemical leachate rather than the particles themselves. Since tire wear contributes a large share of total microplastic pollution, understanding its full impact on water ecosystems and the food chain is important for human health.
What is known and unknown concerning microplastics from tyre wear?
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This review synthesizes current knowledge on tyre wear particles (TWPs) as a major source of road-traffic microplastics, covering how particle generation, transport pathways, and environmental fate depend on tyre composition, road characteristics, and weather. A key finding is that while TWPs can be identified in environmental samples, quantifying them precisely remains difficult and expensive—a gap that must be closed to accurately assess human and ecological exposure.
Tire Wear Particles and Their Role in Microplastic Pollution
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This review synthesized research on tire wear particles (TWPs) as a major but often overlooked source of microplastic pollution, contributing roughly six million tonnes annually. TWPs spread into soil, rivers, and oceans, where they carry toxic chemicals including heavy metals and PAHs, posing risks to wildlife and potentially entering the human food chain.
Review: Micro- and macro-scale transport of tire wear particles in aquatic environments and risk control
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Every time tires wear down on roads, they shed tiny plastic-like particles that eventually wash into rivers, lakes, and oceans. This review pulls together existing research on how these particles settle, travel, and build up in water — a key step in understanding where they end up and how they might affect aquatic life and, potentially, the food and water humans rely on. While it doesn't test new health effects, it lays the groundwork for figuring out how to reduce this widespread but often overlooked source of microplastic pollution.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.