Over 50 million British waste tyres are being burned for fuel in India each year, with grave consequences for human health and the environment, finds an investigation by London-based SourceMaterial and BBC File on 4 Investigates.
Chennai: Over 50 million British waste tyres are being burned for fuel in India each year, with grave consequences for human health and the environment, finds an investigation by London-based SourceMaterial and BBC File on 4 Investigates.
UK exporters are exploiting a loophole in UK environmental regulations to process more tyres than they are legally allowed and make a profit sending them on ships to India rather than recycling them safely in the country, it said. The UK government is facing a legal challenge over failing to stop the practice, from the campaign group Fighting Dirty represented by law firm Leigh Day, it added.
Scores of Indian traders and middlemen sell imported tyres on Facebook groups set up to buy and sell pyrolysis oil. Some of the advertised shipments show up to 500 tonnes being traded at Indian ports for up to £80,000.
Many tyres are traded by brokers, who turn a profit reselling them to fuel makers running rural pyrolysis plants with terrible working and living conditions. Tyre pyrolysis is the process of converting used tyres into products like steel wire, carbon black, and bio-oil by treating them in high temperatures.
At Wada village in Maharashtra a tyre pyrolysis plant using imported tyres exploded in January 2025, killing two children and two women.
According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce, the import of waste or scrap tyres which was 2.64 lakh metric tonnes (MT) in FY21 has risen to 13.98 lakh MT in FY24.
Earlier, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) had flagged that the rise in unregulated imports is posing significant environmental and safety risks.
