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.
Yep. They’re probably cleaning out the chambers directly onto the ground and scrubbing none of the waste gas. Maybe not even burning it off in the first place. Again, this is not an orderly, developed country. The same would be true if they were cleaning silicon for solar panels or whatever green thing you’d prefer.
The headline makes it sound like they’re just burning them, not turning them back into crude.