Researchers at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have built ECOTIRE, a prototype tire whose tread is moulded separately and mechanically attached to the casing, so a worn tread can be swapped out instead of scrapping the whole tire. Separating the two also frees manufacturers to use different materials for the tread; the team’s silicone rubber tests showed roughly ten times less wear than conventional rubber. It targets two problems at once: tire waste, and tire abrasion as one of the largest sources of microplastic pollution. Source: Core77