Interesting. This article you linked states that tires emit not only more particulate emissions than tailpipes during driving, but also more VOC emissions!
> Another area of research centers on the impacts of aromatic hydrocarbons — including benzene and naphthalene — off-gassed by synthetic rubber or emitted when discarded tires are burned in incinerators for energy recovery. Even at low concentrations, these compounds are toxic to humans. They also react with sunlight to form ozone, or ground-level smog, which causes respiratory harm. “We have shown that the amount of off-gassing volatile organic compounds is 100 times greater than that coming out of a modern tailpipe,” said Molden. “This is from the tire just sitting there.”
I'm starting to see more and more homes in the area where I live, Southern California in the LA region, switching from green unsustainable lawns to some form of hardscape/ xeriscaping.
one of the rising trends is the use of old tires as a ground cover source. These have been shredded and processed with a small amount of coloring into something that very strikingly resembles and spreads like wood chips until you pick them up and feel them in your hands.
Of course it better solution would be to not have tires that are so toxic to begin with, but there are very few products into which the most unusable kinds of recyclable plastic streams can be fed, and tires are one of them.
Certainly most particulate matter, and it's not even close. Comparing particulates to gas emissions is difficult, so there's no way to say what's "most".
Either way, my greater point still stands: switching to EVs isn't a cure-all to breathing around cars.
Sure, I suppose this is where I find umbrage with the claim. Instead of “most” maybe try “a comparable quantity of”? (I’d cut to the chase by clarifying tyres and brakes are the principle source of particulate matter, a pollutant with proven harms.)
