College Students Invention - A Device curbing the Tires Microplastics

Microplastics that are a result of vehicle tires wear are a growing pollution problem. Actually, tire particles are the second-largest microplastic group present in our oceans. In order to curb this specific pollutant group, four students have come up with an innovative solution to the issue. Furthermore, their project has been recognized as a national winner of the James Dyson Awards. Every time a vehicle brakes, accelerates, or turns a corner, the tires scrape, shave and wear down, resulting in tiny particles becoming airborne—this produces half a million tons of tiny tire particles annually in Europe alone.

According to a statement from Imperial College London, the team’s winning device is fitted to the wheel of the vehicle and uses electrostatics to gather charged particles as they fly off the tire. Based on the results sourced from their test rig, the Tyre Collective student group states that their prototype can collect 60% of all airborne particles from tires. Once collected, the fragments can be recycled into new tires, or even in other materials such as ink. The team consists of four students from all around the world: They names are Siobhan Anderson, Hanson Cheng, M Deepak Mallya, and Hugo Richardson.

Image source: hugorichardson.com/The-Tyre-Collective

“As a team, our strength lies in our diversity. We come from all four corners of the globe and bring with us a wealth of knowledge in mechanical engineering, product design, architecture and biomechanics.” - Hugo Richardson, student, member of the Tyre Collective

While greater and growing numbers of electric vehicles will help reduce exhaust emissions, tire dust will continue to contribute to air and ultimately, water pollution. With wide-scale adoption of the Tyre Collective’s patent-pending technology, however, this problem can be much reduced. And iti is our hope, that this solution, and hopefully many other ones in the future, bring us closer to our goal of saving the environment of our planet.

All images sourced from hugorichardson.com/The-Tyre-Collective