Sorption of organic substances to tire wear materials: Similarities and differences with other types of microplastic

Tire materials are a significant proportion of the (micro)plastics in the environment that until today have been clearly overlooked. These materials are released into the environment, either unintentionally as an abrasion product from tire wear, that reaches the environment via road runoff, or intentionally as, for example, shredded “tire crumble rubber” used as filling material for playgrounds. Although there are a few estimates available the amount of tire-wear material to be found in aquatic environments, investigations on the fate tire materials and especially their interaction with organic substances are missing. Although the sorption processes associated with the complex constituents of tires are an important aspect of any environmental risk assessment for tire-wear materials, they have yet to be thoroughly investigated. In this review we elucidate the sorption properties of the polymeric rubbers and carbon black that form the main components of tires, within the context of current microplastic research.