Earlier quoted context omitted.
Came up in conversation when I took my car in that up until recently they were using little bits of copper in brake pads for... noise control? heat? I can't recall which. But that's been outlawed now, presumably due to potential for metal toxicity (any mineral you need in your diet is also lethal at higher doses). We're leaving powdered copper at every stop light.
Copper is still very common in brake pads, both in the semi-metallic and ceramic varieties. California phases out copper-containing brake pads starting in 2025.
Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
111–120 of 232 posts
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was just floored when the BPA problems arose and all these people I knew were trading in one plastic bottle for a different one. I'm switching to glass and stainless and everyone else is buying more plastic . Just... don't understand why we learn so slow.
Plastics are just pretty damn convenient materials. They're solid, cheap, can be made flexible or hard, don't rust, are easy to clean etc... Glass is heavy and breaks when dropped, metal is less heavy and only dents but it's more expensive than plastic. A lot of metal containers have an internal plastic lining simply so that food (and especially acidic food) doesn't react with the metal through direct contact.
Once in a while I'll see something about the history of food preservation and it's always funny because the more optimistic folks will point to a particular date and inventor as the birth of pasteurized canning. And then a more curmudgeonly person will sometimes point out that the tin from those cans would leach in and turn the food black.
Not quite the victory people make it out to be. It was a bit later before they got the process to store food that people would eat.
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've always been leery of metal containers because I'm sure there's some unsafe machine oil/lubricant in there from the China manufacturing plant it was made at and wasn't completely/properly washed. Even after washing it at home I'm sure you can't get everything out.
I can do you one better. During that time frame, Kleen Kanteen made a big mea culpa, because initially they claimed that their canteens were BPA free and then they found out they were lining them with... you guessed it, BPA. I tend to use glass for anything other than water. Anything without a neutral pH can make your container more reactive, no matter what it's made of. I put tea or coffee into a double wall stainle…
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
...and can only go to select locations at certain times that may or may not align with your final destination or schedule.
the last mile problem can be solved in a million different ways: bikes, taxis, uber, walking, buses... Eliminating car culture is non optional if we want to save the planet.
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#115Imagine all the problems that would be solved if someone invented a car with metal wheels, maybe one that can hold hundreds of people, goes really fast, is quiet and efficient....
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can do you one better. During that time frame, Kleen Kanteen made a big mea culpa, because initially they claimed that their canteens were BPA free and then they found out they were lining them with... you guessed it, BPA. I tend to use glass for anything other than water. Anything without a neutral pH can make your container more reactive, no matter what it's made of. I put tea or coffee into a double wall stainle…
What's wrong with ceramics?
Of course I have a friend who found some ceramic food storage containers with lids. They're lighter than glasslock but I already have more than I use, and they have better seals.
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
...and can only go to select locations at certain times that may or may not align with your final destination or schedule.
the last mile problem can be solved in a million different ways: bikes, taxis, uber, walking, buses... Eliminating car culture is non optional if we want to save the planet.
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is not why trains are not viable in America. Trains are far more heavily subsidized than autos, for example, on a per-passenger mile basis. Studies that account for the full bore of taxes which apply to personal vehicles (sales tax, excise tax, gas tax, registration fees) show that cars provide significant net income to government far exceeding infrastructure outlays. I think that trains being less fuel efficien…
TIL gas taxes paid for Boston's Big Dig. What states actually reap a surplus from personal auto fees? Meanwhile, are you including in your thought process any of the following? - Public land permanently dedicated to roads, highways, parking lots, etc - Parking minimums in zoning codes - Police resources dedicated to traffic enforcement - Wars of aggression fought to preserve oil prices - Oil industry subsidies - Inno…
Public land will be permanently dedicated to rails and stations and things, if you want to cover the same area with transit access, you'll need similar, if not the same public land.
Parking minimums are not about being pro-car so much as being about anti-poor. This is a subsidy to entrenched interests, not to cars.
Police make money from traffic enforcement. Many departments get their whole budget from that. Many towns get their whole budget, above and beyond the PD, from it. Eliminate cars tomorrow and you bankrupt a huge percentage of non-major cities and all small towns.
Wars of aggression over oil are likely over due to fracking and oil sands, but I'll grant that they were bad while they were happening. Now, how are your predominantly diesel trains going to be powered without oil?
Oil subsidies are a problem. I would love to see congestion pricing and an end to all subsidies for transit, trains, buses, cars, bikes and pedestrian behaviors. We do not and never will again live in that world.
Deaths due to automobiles are at a record low per passenger mile and continuing to fall. Every time we make roads and cars and esp new cars more expensive, these rise as people limp their dangerous old clunker along a bit more. Weirdly, the requirements for safety technology cause people to drive older, less fuel efficient cars and the requirements for better emissions cause people to drive older, less safe cars all due to rising prices. Perhaps we should subsidize the removal of old cars (cash for clunkers)?
I don't think you can blame sedentary lifestyles on driving. That's a step too far -- it's a factor, but it's by no means the biggest or the most consistent. I doubt that we'd be able to attribute anywhere near enough health problem to only and specifically long commutes to even really price this externality.
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is not why trains are not viable in America. Trains are far more heavily subsidized than autos, for example, on a per-passenger mile basis. Studies that account for the full bore of taxes which apply to personal vehicles (sales tax, excise tax, gas tax, registration fees) show that cars provide significant net income to government far exceeding infrastructure outlays. I think that trains being less fuel efficien…
TIL gas taxes paid for Boston's Big Dig. What states actually reap a surplus from personal auto fees? Meanwhile, are you including in your thought process any of the following? - Public land permanently dedicated to roads, highways, parking lots, etc - Parking minimums in zoning codes - Police resources dedicated to traffic enforcement - Wars of aggression fought to preserve oil prices - Oil industry subsidies - Inno…
$66 billion a year in use taxes including fuel, excise, and registration.
That’s just the direct revenue. If you want to include externalities, you also have to include economic activity enabled by these investments, and the taxes on those activities.
Just the auto sector alone produces $60 billion of income tax revenue for state and Federal governments.
But that’s not even scratching the surface of total economic activity supported by the national highway infrastructure, or state and local infrastructure, which arguably holds up double digits percentages of GDP. State income taxes rise and fall based on their infrastructure investments.
Even the Big Dig (at $14 billion in cost I assume due to massive fraud) eventually not only pays for itself but is massively profitable from a combination of vehicle cost savings and in future revenue streams from increased economic activity enabled by the new infrastructure and added prime real estate. [1]
A lot of people die or are injured on the highways. Did you also attempt to measure the lives bettered and saved because of those same highways?
An informed discussion balances positives and negatives of any activity, along with the positives and negatives of a proposed substitute.
There’s a reason why infrastructure spending is one of the very few things which garners almost universal support from all political parties.
[1] - https://www.edrgroup.com/library/highways/economic-impact-ce...
Re: Car tires biggest likely source of microplastics in California coastal waters
#120in atlanta soil near roads tends to have a lot of lead. A daycare near me had to shutdown their playground/garden because it was testing really high in lead.
Where was this in Atlanta? I only remember this story and it was not because of car pollution.[1] > The EPA believes the lead came from fill material used by the neighborhood's original developers to level out some of the lots more than a century ago. [1] https://www.wsbtv.com/amp/news/local/atlanta/epa-confirms-se...