I assume it would break into smaller particles similar to the formation of microplastics. I hear about the effects of microplastics all the time. Are the effects of disposed rubber on the environment studied as extensively?
Natural rubber (latex) is biodegradable, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t bad for the environment. The production and disposal of natural latex causes all sorts of problems unrelated to microplastics.
Synthetic rubber is chemically distinct from plastic, but still breaks down into microplastics.
Natural rubber tires are vulcanized, which makes the rubber more resilient, but also more damaging to the environment.
Well damn that is depressing. Humans are real shit about our garbage.
I don’t know about the disposal of rubber, but the production of rubber has historically enslaved and destroyed entire populations and environmentally wrecked whole regions of the earth in Africa and South America…
It’s part of the problem, but I don’t think we’ve studied individual contributors as much as looked at the big picture. There was a study on plastics in general that has some citations of the statistics it gathers, and I ran across it in looking up specifically the rubber from tires, aka tire dust from wear and tear (which all vehicles have to some degree, even EVs, and is often a part of the argument of less cars rather than different cars). So about 1 millions tons of the annual contribution to plastics in the ocean is due to tire dust in runoff waters. Also keep in mind that like many large studies that take a while to put together, I think a lot of these statistics are old (around 2016). It’s probably worse now.