[kylebenzle]

We could replace all the synthetic rubber with home grown natural rubber right now. It would last longer and be of much higher quality but it would double prices or more, so instead we burn oil and dump pulverized plastics into our waterways, because its a little cheaper.

[Nasrudith]

Unfortunately there are all sorts of other material properties to worry about beyond raw durability/'quality'. Natural rubber tires react quite poorly to hydrocarbons and greases, let alone traction issues. And that is putting aside the logistical issues with getting sufficient natural rubber.

There may be some sort of "compromise" material that could be developed that would lack the toxicity or microplastics issues without compromising safety, but I'm going to defer to experts in that field.

[SoftTalker]

Then the obvious answer is to price those externalities into the cost of the synthetic rubber tires.

Of course then you'll have a lot of lower-income folks driving around on dangerously worn-out tires because they can't afford new ones.

By the way I thought it was the synthetic rubber tires that lasted longer, but certainly possible that I'm mistaken.

[AJ007]

Yes, synthetic should be more durable than natural rubber.

Once the petrochemical supply is exhausted, or what is left is extremely expensive to extract, they won't be able to afford new tires either. (Tires, and personal passenger vehicles, could be some of the least important of the "missing" consumption from the loss of petrochemicals.)

[bennyhill]

Interesting, but wouldn't using only natural rubber result in a huge amount of land clearing and then a monoculture, similar to the environmental issues of palm oil?

[SoftTalker]

We have a lot of already-cleared farmland that sits vacant or could be used more profitably. I don't know if it's suitable for growing rubber trees, but I doubt we'd have to do a lot of clearing.

[oivey]

It’s not. We use synthetic rubber because natural rubber is expensive and can’t be cultivated easily in the US.