BBC file on 4 investigation
Getty imagesThe environment agency said that it has been revealed from the BBC that instead of recycling in India, it is starting an increased investigation on the export of tires from the UK after being sent to millions of people to furnaces.
An EA report admitted that it was “extremely likely” that the ratio of exported tires was converted into illegal furnaces.
These mekshift industrial plants can cause serious health problems and environmental damage to remove steel, small amounts of oil and other materials.
Campaigners and tire recycling industry bodies welcomed the announcement but said that the proposal would not stop all the flaws exploited by the criminals.
The UK produces about 50 million waste tires (about 700,000 tons) every year. According to official data, about half of these are exported to India, it is believed to be recycled.
But in March of this year, BBC file on 4 investigation and source material, a non-profit journalism group, revealed that Some 70% of tires exported to India from the UK and the rest of the world are being sent to industrial plantsWhere they are “cooked” to remove carbon black – a powder or tablet that can be used in various industries – as well as steel and oil.
This process is known as pyrolysis and is similar to features for homemade pressure cookers, often in rural backwater. They can produce gases and chemicals that can be toxic, harmful to public health and potentially dangerous.
In January, two women and two children were killed in an explosion at a plant in the western state of Maharashtra, where European-Khatte tires were being processed.
A BBC team visited the site and saw vegetation, dying vegetation and polluted waterways in the surrounding area. The villagers complained of constant cough and eye problems.
The BBC revealed that millions of tires were being “cooked” in these plants, the environment agency started a review, which concluded last week.
This first admitted that it is “highly prone to” that the ratio of tires from the UK is converted into illegal pyrolysis.
EA said, “We have not been able to verify that the waste pneumatic tires exported are arriving at their intended destination sites in India,” EA said, “There was a lack of sufficiently reliable information” that they were being properly processed.
The EA stated that if there is a risk that waste will not be managed environmentally responsible, and it will introduce an increased investigation on tire exports from October 1, it is the responsibility of restricting waste exports.
Under the proposals that export tires will have to satisfy EA that the waste is being environmentally recovered.
But dirty -fighting pressure groups, which threatened the EA with legal proceedings that it is called “lack of action” on tire exports, said that “very little expansion” to satisfy them is that the proposals of EA would effectively close the flaws exploited by criminals.
The group’s founder Georgia Elliott-Smith said that the plan is “it seems”, but simply seems to be self-proclaimed paperwork with the danger of inspection-“not much different from today’s flawed protocols”.
“Only time will tell whether it is a meaningful change, or just more red tape and delay,” he said.
The Tire Recycling Association (TRA), which has long been campaigned to ban the export of entire tires, an attitude adopted by the Australian government said it was “very disappointed” that EA rejected the idea.
It assumes that the tires should only be exported after clipping, which will make it more expensive and difficult to sell them illegally in India.
“Nevertheless, EA is thwarting us as well as ourselves,” TRA said.
The EA stated that the new rules are a “practical solution” that would continue to allow waste tires to export to India, where exporters may show that they are being roughly sent to the UK with similar standards.
