UK environment agency to review waste tire exports to India

London – The UK Environment Agency (EA) has agreed to review its approach to waste tire exports following legal pressure from campaign group Fighting Dirty.

The group, represented by law firm Leigh Day, challenged the EA’s classification of used car tires as “green list waste,” which allows them to be shipped abroad “without proper checks or oversight.”

According to the group, many of the 55 million tire exported annually from the UK end up in illegal pyrolysis plants in India, where they are burned in unsafe conditions, causing “massive pollution”.

In a 25 March letter to Fighting Dirty, the EA said it would conduct an internal review, consulting industry representatives, trade bodies, and the Indian government.

The process is expected to take three months, with Fighting Dirty invited to present its concerns.

“Taking regulators to court is always the last option for Fighting Dirty,” said Fighting Dirty director Georgia Elliott-Smith.

However, Elliott-Smith added that the group was progressing ‘in good faith’ with the EA offering to review the legal framework around the exporting of waste tires.

“We wait with cautious optimism to find out more about the scope of their review,” the campaigner said, adding that the government “must stop turning a blind eye to the illegal and immoral activity of UK waste exporters.”

The move follows a BBC File on 4 documentary that exposed the dangers of tire exports, including a fatal explosion at an Indian pyrolysis plant processing imported tires.