ETRMA Addresses Tire And Road Wear Particles In Two New Reports

Multi-stakeholder platform includes possible mitigation options

After a year of collaboration, The European Tyre & Rubber Manufacturers’ Association (ETRMA) has released two reports that put forth actions for addressing tire and road wear particles (TRWP). Tire and road wear particles are an agglomeration of material generated from the tire and the road during normal driving conditions as a result of the friction between the tire and the road.

The new reports highlight potential measures to reduce generation and transportation of TRWP and call for additional research where knowledge gaps exist.

The Way Forward Report explores the most promising ways of alleviating TRWP’s environmental impact including methods to address TRWP generation, capture and removal which were jointly identified as top priority items by platform members. In addition, the report recommends several pathways for continued cross-sector collaboration.

The second report, “Scientific Report on TRWP in the Aquatic Environment”, prepared by Professor Dr. Martin Jekel from TU Berlin, summarizes existing TRWP scientific research and knowledge gaps from generation to freshwater systems.

The report findings are based on available literature, including recent studies, publications, reports and presentations. This review also identifies several future avenues for research.

“The topic of TRWP is very complex and our knowledge is still very limited,” Dr. Jekel said. Jekel expects to see considerable progress in industry’s understanding of tire and roads wear particles in the next years. Several on-going research projects will help support or reject several hypotheses or assumptions, he said. They will contribute to the evaluation of the effects of TRWP in the environment and will be the basis for decisions on optional countermeasures,” Jekel said.

“As a sector, we are faced with the complex challenge of reducing the generation of tire and road wear particles without impacting the important role tires play in road safety and mobility,” Fazilet Cinaralp, Secretary-General of ETRMA said. Cinaralp recommended bringing all parties involved together for an open dialogue on potential solutions and collaboration across industries and public authorities, as a way forward.

© Scrap Tire News, November 2019