Four tires lasting 30k-50k miles weigh a total of about 100 pounds and those four tires will only loose a total of about 30 pounds of that in their lifetimes. On the other hand, 30k to 50k miles of typical fossil fuel driving produces 18 metric tons of carbon dioxide on average.

So something other than carbon dioxide is being measured. That being the case, why not go full red herring and say that old tires produce infinitely more waste steel than car exhaust?

The way this is framed, I feel the typical person will take away that tires produce more of the expected pollution we think of when we think of cars making this super deceptive in my opinion.