A British startup is installing electrostatic tire dust collection machines on a fleet of electric delivery vans in London to reduce the world's second-largest tire consumption.largest source microplastic pollution.
When cars drive, the friction between tires and the road surface releases tiny rubber particles that end up in the air, water, and even our bodies. Tires contain a number of toxic chemicals that, when they come into contact with connected to cancer, lung disease and even mass extinction of river salmon.
“We are all aware of the exhaust emissions from cars, but the enormous scale of tire pollution has largely gone unnoticed,” Hanson Cheng, co-founder and CEO of The Tire Collective, told TNW.
Cheng founded The Tyre Collective in 2020 together with Siobhan Anderson and Hugo Richardson. The team founded the company from a master's research project at Imperial College in London.
The founders of The Tyre Collective: Siobhan Anderson (left), Hugo Richardson and Hanson Cheng. Image credit: The Tyre Collective
“In our research, we found that almost nothing was being done to curb tire pollution,” Cheng said. “It was like an invisible problem that no one was talking about.”
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The Tire Collective has built the first device that captures tire dust at its source. The machine, about the size of a toaster, attaches to the chassis of a vehicle, just behind the steering wheel. As a car drives, tire dust flows through the device, where it is captured by a series of metal plates.
“We found that tire particles become electrostatically charged due to friction with the road,” Cheng explained. “So we tried to pass a negative charge through the metal plates to naturally attract the particles. It worked.”
The box on the left weighs 336 g and shows how much tyre dust London's longest bus route produces in a day. Scientists estimate that around 6.1 million tonnes of tyre dust enter our atmosphere and waterways every year. Image credit: The Tyre Collective
The patent-pending technology can capture up to 60% of particles from car tires. Once captured, they can be processed into a range of products such as shoe soles, rubber mats, inks and dyes. The machine needs to be cleaned at least once a week, but the company says it is working on a more convenient way to store the particles.
In March, the EU adopted the world's first regulatory framework to combat tyre pollution – a wake-up call for tyre manufacturers and carmakers to clean up their acts. It was also the market incentive The Tyre Collective had been waiting for.
Spurred on by tightening regulations, the company is now testing its technology in a fleet of electric delivery vans owned by London-based startup HIVED. The two-month trial will help The Tyre Collective refine its machine and prepare it for market launch, with the company being supported by a $2 million government grant.
A HIVED employee shows electric van drivers where to empty the tyre dust collector when it is full. Image credit: The Tyre Collective
For companies like HIVED, the technology offers the opportunity to make their fleets more environmentally friendly beyond the tailpipe.
“For us, fully electric deliveries are a starting point, not the end goal,” HIVED co-founder Murvah Iqbal told TNW. “We are aiming for zero-emission mobility.”
The Tyre Collective's machine is not a panacea. Ultimately, we need to drive less, walk more and invest in cleaner modes of transport alongside technological solutions.
Nevertheless, Cheng believes the device could soon become standard equipment in all vehicles, similar to how catalytic converters, which convert toxic exhaust gases into less toxic pollutants, are now required for all gasoline-powered cars.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s a start,” he said.
