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.
Business Insider has a long running series called World Wide Waste, with some very interesting videos. One of them about this woman in Nigeria (!) who started a business recycling tires because her community literally got sick of the tires that where left behind everywhere around her. It really makes me sad rich western countries can make their trash disappear and have people in much worse conditions deal with the consequences. I really enjoy those videos by Business Insider because they shed a light on the people who do the right thing despite of the shit the worlds pulls on them.
https://www.businessinsider.com/one-nigerian-aims-to-recycle-millions-of-waste-tires-2023-10