Used tyre loophole fuels toxic waste crisis

The head of the UK’s largest tyre trade body has called on the Labour government to take urgent action to close legal loopholes that enable millions of exported used tyres to be burnt in India.

Darren Lindsey, who leads the British Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (BTMA) – a trade body that represents tyre manufacturers and retreaders – warns that politicians need to end the so-called T8 exemption and “introduce stricter controls and traceability measures”.

This, he said, would bring to an end the environmental and human harm when end-of-life tyres are sent for disposal to countries where regulatory and environmental standards do not align with the UK’s. According to official figures, of the 50 million tyres sent to waste every year, around half are exported.

It is the T8 exemption that allows these tyres to be sent abroad. The exemption is easy to apply for and approved without the need for a site inspection, and it was originally put in place for low-risk sectors, such as agricultural and recyclers, to allow them to process up to 40 tonnes of waste passenger car tyres per week without having to apply for a stricter environmental permit.

For example, they could process tyres into ‘bales’ – huge, compressed rubber cubes – and send them to be shredded and granulated in countries such as India. While this would be done in a similar manner to how they would be disposed of in the UK, it is a much cheaper alternative.

However, Lindsey said the loophole is instead being exploited by a growing minority of waste tyre collectors. He has called on the government to remove the exemption and introduce stricter controls and traceability measures to monitor the movement and disposal of these tyres.

A recent BBC investigation claimed that while these bales were being sent under a pretence of being correctly recycled, they were in fact being burnt by firms connected to India’s black market.

Burning tyres is illegal in the UK because, according to the Environment Agency, they emit hazardous smoke and pollutants. Instead, in the UK, end-of-life tyres must be handled by registered waste or recycling fi rms, which allows them to be tracked.

Lindsey said: “When you consider that the UK operates an unregulated free market system, and that the world is being hit with high energy prices, it creates the perfect storm for waste tyres, which have a high calorific value, to be shipped around the world. If the government, however, ends the T8 exemption, the trade in the 1000 tonnes of waste tyres that leave our shores every day would drastically reduce.”

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