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Tyre particles do not follow a single route after rain. Some remain in roadside soil or drainage channels, some are trapped in stormwater treatment, some enter wastewater systems, and some reach rivers, lakes and coastal waters. A portion can also be resuspended into the air before or after a storm. Where a particle ends up depends mainly on its size and chemistry, the local drainage design, the intensity of the rain and how quickly water moves through treatment.
Particles that reach water often settle into sediment, but settling is not the same as permanent removal. Flood flows can remobilize stored material, and ageing can release tyre-related chemicals. Scientists can describe the main pathways with confidence; the long-term freshwater persistence and ecological risk at ordinary environmental concentrations are still being worked out.
What tyre particles are
Tyre-and-road wear particles (TRWP) are produced when tyre rubber and pavement abrade against each other. They are mixtures rather than one uniform substance: rubber compounds, road minerals and traffic-derived material can be bound together, and composition varies with tyre formulations and road surfaces. Particle size ranges from relatively coarse grains to fine material that is difficult to separate from other urban dust.
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The journey from road surface to receiving water
1. Deposition beside the road
Wear debris accumulates where tyres contact pavement and where moving vehicles push dust toward kerbs. Some is deposited directly into roadside soil; some is stored in gullies, channels and sediment at the edge of the carriageway. The amount generated is not the amount that reaches a river: collection, treatment and infiltration intervene between those points.
2. Mobilisation by rain, cleaning and air movement
Rainfall detaches deposited material and carries it in surface runoff. Street sweeping or vacuum cleaning can remove part of the dry load before a storm. Conversely, passing vehicles and wind can resuspend fine material into the air. Local particle size, road slope, kerb design and the time since the last cleaning or storm all change the proportion that moves.
3. Roadside soil and open drainage
Roads without a storm sewer often discharge toward verges, ditches or unsealed ground. The 2018 review of tyre-wear pathways concluded that transfer to roadside soil is likely in these settings, with some particles eventually reaching nearby waterways. Coarser grains can be retained in drainage channels, canals and gully pots, while finer fractions travel farther with flowing water.
4. Separate stormwater systems
In a separate drainage network, road runoff may pass through a gully, detention pond, filter, vegetated channel or infiltration feature before discharge. Sedimentation gives dense, coarse particles time to settle; filters and engineered media can intercept smaller fractions if they are designed and maintained for that load. A system that infiltrates water may keep particles in local soil, whereas an outfall sends the remaining load to a stream, lake or estuary.
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5. Combined sewers and wastewater plants
Some cities send road runoff and household wastewater through the same pipes. During ordinary flows, material may arrive at a municipal treatment plant with other suspended solids. Intense rain can trigger a combined-sewer overflow, bypassing treatment altogether. Even without an overflow, a sudden hydraulic surge can shorten settling time and wash previously retained solids out of tanks or channels.
6. Surface water and sediment
Particles that survive collection and treatment enter receiving water. Many settle close to an outfall, especially where flow slows, so concentrations often decline with distance from roads in monitoring studies. Rivers with high velocities, steep gradients or flood pulses can carry particles farther, and deposited material can be disturbed again by storms, dredging or bottom-feeding animals.
Drainage infrastructure decides more than rainfall does
The same storm can produce different outcomes on two roads because their drainage systems differ. A useful way to compare routes is to ask where water goes, how long solids remain in the system and what happens to the captured sediment.
| Route | Likely particle outcome | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Roadside verge, ditch or soil | Infiltration and local accumulation; some transfer to a nearby waterway | Fine particles can migrate through soil or leave during high flows |
| Gully pot or channel | Coarse material settles and can be removed during maintenance | Fine material remains suspended; neglected deposits may be flushed |
| Separate stormwater treatment | Filtration, sedimentation or wetland processes retain a portion before discharge or infiltration | Performance depends on design, maintenance and hydraulic residence time |
| Combined sewer to a wastewater plant | Some solids may be incorporated into treatment sludge | Overflow and storm surges can bypass or weaken treatment |
| Direct outfall | Immediate delivery to a stream, lake or coastal water, followed by dilution and settling | Little opportunity for capture before discharge |
| Street cleaning or resuspension | Cleaning removes part of the road load; resuspension transfers fine material to air | Neither route guarantees destruction or safe final disposal |
How well do treatment systems capture particles?
There is no universal removal percentage for tyre particles. Results vary with particle size, density, aggregation with other road dust, filter media, pond geometry, maintenance and storm flow. A short residence time can leave fine particles in the water, and an extreme storm can scour or overflow a system that performs well in ordinary rain.
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The 2018 review found no direct measurements of tyre-particle removal in municipal wastewater plants. It used studies of other microplastics as a rough comparison and reported that removal might exceed 90% for particles larger than 300 micrometres, with lower removal for smaller particles. That figure is an extrapolation, not a measured tyre-particle performance result, and it should not be used as a guarantee for a particular plant.
For road-runoff controls, a meaningful assessment should report:
- the smallest particle fraction tested, not only total suspended solids;
- retention during normal flow and during intense storms;
- whether captured sediment is removed on schedule and managed safely;
- whether treated water infiltrates, enters a wastewater plant or discharges to surface water; and
- local field data rather than a laboratory result copied from another design.
What happens after particles settle in water?
Sediment in a treatment pond or receiving water can act as a sink. This lowers the concentration in the overlying water, but it does not make the material disappear. A flood, dredging operation or change in bed conditions can move stored particles downstream. Fine particles may also remain suspended longer than coarse aggregates, particularly in turbid rivers.
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One environmental soil study cited in the 2018 review implied a half-life of about 16 months for tyre-rubber particles under its test conditions. That is a soil result, not a freshwater half-life or a universal persistence estimate. It should not be used to predict how long particles remain in every river or lake.
How much material is produced and how much reaches water?
Large estimates describe generation, not aquatic release. Wagner and colleagues estimated annual tyre-wear particle generation at 1,327,000 tonnes in the European Union, 1,120,000 tonnes in the United States and 133,000 tonnes in Germany. These review estimates are tied to their 2018 methods and geographies; they do not mean those quantities entered waterways.
The same review estimated up to 11,000 tonnes per year reaching surface waters from German highways. That figure applies to the specified highway network and should not be generalized to all German roads or to other countries. The fraction reaching water depends on how much runoff is collected, treated, infiltrated or lost to roadside soils and maintenance operations.
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Potential concern comes from both the particles and substances released from them. Particle surfaces can provide attachment sites for other pollutants, while leaching can introduce tyre-related chemicals into water. Recent toxicology reviews discuss compounds including 6PPD-quinone and zinc, but an observed effect in a controlled experiment is not proof that every field site reaches a harmful exposure.
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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency summarized the remaining uncertainty plainly: “Many questions remain regarding the ecological risks of exposure to tire wear particles.” Risk depends on species, life stage, concentration, exposure duration, water chemistry and whether the material is in water or sediment. The 2025 systematic review by Sun and colleagues screened 671 studies published from 2004 through 2024 and reported aquatic detection results ranging from 0.03 to 179 milligrams per litre. That broad range combines different methods and environments; it is not a representative concentration for rivers generally.
Why measurements disagree
Researchers do not collect a perfectly standardized substance. Tyre particles vary in size and formulation, aggregate with road dust and may be chemically altered before sampling. Different studies use different separators, digestion steps, analytical instruments and definitions of “tyre particle.” Some measure particles, others measure marker chemicals, and still others model releases from traffic counts.
When reading a result, check four distinctions:
- Generation versus release: a model of wear on roads is not a measurement at a river outfall.
- Direct field measurement versus extrapolation: a wastewater estimate based on microplastic studies is not plant-specific tyre data.
- Water-column concentration versus sediment load: a low water result can coexist with substantial bed accumulation.
- Laboratory persistence versus environmental fate: controlled degradation conditions may not represent a changing river or stormwater pond.
What road authorities can do
Controls work best as a treatment train rather than a single device. Keeping solids out of flowing water at the kerb reduces the burden on downstream systems; providing enough storage and residence time improves settling; and regular removal prevents captured sediment from being flushed during the next major storm.
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- Reduce the dry-road load. Schedule effective street cleaning where monitoring shows accumulated material, and manage the collected solids as contaminated road sediment rather than assuming they are harmless dust.
- Intercept runoff near the source. Use maintained gully pots, vegetated swales, sediment forebays, detention ponds or filters suited to the local particle-size distribution.
- Design for high flows. Include bypass and overflow controls that limit scour and document what happens during extreme rainfall.
- Inspect and remove deposits. Empty sumps and ponds before storage capacity is lost, and track where the removed solids are transported.
- Measure local performance. Sample inflow and outflow across ordinary storms and high-flow events, reporting particle size and analytical method so results can be compared.
What this means for a person watching a storm drain
Seeing cloudy runoff enter a drain does not reveal the final destination. It may be filtered, settle in a pond, enter a wastewater plant, overflow during the storm or flow directly to a stream. Likewise, a clear-looking outfall does not prove that no tyre material is present: fine particles and dissolved or leached chemicals can escape visual detection.
The most accurate answer to “what happens after wash-off?” is therefore a conditional one: particles are partitioned among soil, infrastructure, sediment, water and sometimes air. Some are captured and managed; others are transported onward. Their ultimate persistence and ecological significance depend on local conditions that current monitoring does not yet resolve.
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