{Lead-Free Wheels}
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Tin wheel weight
Lead wheel weights
Each year in Michigan 9 million tires are replaced and require balancing with wheel weights that are currently made of lead. Typically 200-250 grams of lead are used per vehicle to balance the tires. Recent studies have documented that balancing weights fall off wheels with alarming frequency during vehicle use. An estimated 75-100 metric tons are deposited in Michigan roadways each year. Approximately 50% of vehicles on the road may be missing one or more wheel weights. Lead deposited on streets contaminates ground surfaces, storm water and groundwater, and poses a health risk to humans and fish. Alternative weights are commercially available and strategic demonstration programs of these alternatives are critical to leveraging an industry-wide transition to the production and use of lead-free wheel balancing weights. The Lead-Free Wheels program would work with independent tire dealers and public fleets in the Michigan and the Midwest to install non-lead wheel balancing weights, removing several thousand kilograms of lead from commerce and potential release to the environment. The Lead-Free Wheels program model will also be marketed to other major tire retailers in the Great Lakes Region.
News
A lighter load: Minn. phases out lead wheel weights in Automotive News/Waste News, April 19, 2004
Automakers Divided Over Lead Wheel Weights by the Great Lakes Radio Consurtium, April 12, 2004
Ecology Center Rolls Out "Lead-Free Wheels Project" in From the Ground Up April, 2004
Ann Arbor Announces Program to Phase-Out Lead Wheel Weights on City Vehicles
Minnesota Announces Program to Phase-Out Lead Wheel Weights on State Vehicles
Putting the Brakes on Lead Wheel Weights by the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, March 24
Ecology Center to Demonstrate Safer Substitutes for Major Auto Lead Use in From the Ground Up