Millions of tyres being sent from the UK to India for recycling are actually being “cooked” in makeshift furnaces causing serious health problems and huge environmental damage, the BBC has discovered.
The majority of the UK’s exported waste tyres are sold into the Indian black market, and this is well known within the industry, BBC File on 4 Investigates has been told.
“I don’t imagine there’s anybody in the industry that doesn’t know it’s happening,” says Elliot Mason, owner of one of the biggest tyre recycling plants in the UK.
Campaigners and many of those in the industry – including the Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) – say the government knows the UK is one of the worst offenders for exporting waste tyres for use in this way.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has told us it has strict controls on exporting waste tyres, including unlimited fines and jail time.
The shipments went on an eight-week journey and eventually arrived in an Indian port, before being driven 800 miles cross-country, to a cluster of soot-covered compounds beside a small village.
Drone footage, taken in India and shared with the BBC, showed the tyres reaching a compound – where thousands were waiting to be thrown into huge furnaces to undergo pyrolysis.
Many UK businesses will bale tyres and send them to India because it is more profitable and investing in shredding machinery is expensive, according to Mr Mason.
Story: courtesy of www.bbc.com – 25/03/2025
