Chennai: In India every year, more than 50 million British waste tires burned and had serious consequences for human health and the environment, it was found that London-based Sourcematic and BBC documents investigated four investigations.
It said UK exporters are exploiting a loophole in UK environmental regulations to deal with more tires than legally allowed and to profit from sending them to India instead of safely recycling them in the country. It added that the British government faced a legal challenge in the absence of a cessation of practice, a campaign group Fighting Group represented by law firm Leigh Day.
Indian businessmen and middlemen sell imported tires on Facebook group to buy and sell pyrolytic oil. Some advertising goods appear in Indian ports for transactions up to 500 tons, up to £80,000.
Many tires are traded by brokers who convert their profits into fuel manufacturers, operating rural pyrolysis plants with poor working and living conditions. Tire pyrolysis is a process of treating products such as steel wire, carbon black and bio-oil at high temperatures.
In Wada village in Maharashtra, a tire pyrolysis plant exploded in January 2025, killing two children and two women.
According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce, 264,000 tons of waste or waste tires imported 2.64 million tons (MT) increased to 13.98 billion tons in the fiscal year 24 in the fiscal year 24.
Earlier, the Automotive Tire Manufacturers Association (ATMA) had claimed that the rise in unregulated imports was posing great environmental and safety risks.
