The team here at Earthgarage has been hard at work advocating for our “Give Water a Brake!” initiative. The main idea behind it all is that copper and other toxic materials, which are currently found in traditional brake pads, produce particulate matter each time the brake is pressed. This particulate matter ends up in watersheds around the country and has not only polluted the water, but also causes damage to many sensitive aquatic species such as Salmon.
California and Washington have already both passed bills that have made progress in banning the toxic materials from brake pads. Rhode Island and New York both have legislation on the books, but have yet to be passed, while Oregon has a proposed bill that hasn’t gone into debate yet.
There is little information available online about Rhode Island’s legislation, aside from the bill itself and some information regarding the proceedings of the 2010 act. In short, act H7997 was introduced to the House of Environment and Natural Resources of Rhode Island just over two years ago. One month later, the recommendation was to create a committee to look further into the science behind the toxicity of materials in current brake pads, the ecological risk that the particulate matter actually has on the environment, and what alternatives to traditional brake pads there are. The committee has until December 1, 2015 to report back with their findings.
Oddly enough, all of this information is already accessible by a simple Google search. The Sustainable Conservation has the studies and models that were used in helping to pass the bill in California publicly accessible on their site, and a quick search for copper-free brake pads results in links to FDP EcoStop brake pads that are already on the market.
It seems a bit fishy to me that they need five years to research this when less than five minutes on Google gave me the results they’re after. I’ll be making some inquiries over the next few weeks and will keep you posted, but for now, do yourself and the rest of the world a favor and help us by signing the “Give Water a Brake!” petition on the right side of our homepage, Earthgarage.com.
Give Water a Brake is sponsored by Ecostop, the only copper-free ceramic brake pad currently on the market.
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