Although car owners pay to have their used tires disposed of, it now turns out that 25 million tires are burned in India.
Millions of used tires, which drivers in the UK pay a fee to dispose of safely every year, instead end up as fuel in large pressure cookers in India.
A large portion of the tires that should be recycled are instead burned.
The problematic handling of old tires has been revealed through a study conducted by the BBC .
The investigation reveals that large quantities of car tires sent from the UK to India for recycling are in fact being burned in large-scale facilities.
The process of destroying the tires causes significant health problems for people living near the facilities, while also causing environmental damage to the local area.
Motorists pay in expensive fines for an environmental disaster
According to the BBC, British car owners pay a fee, typically between 40 and 80 Danish kroner per tire, to ensure that their old tires are handled responsibly.
Despite this arrangement, a significant amount of end-of-life tires find their way to India through unofficial channels and end up on the black market.
And the fact that the tires 'disappear' in this way is apparently something that everyone in that part of the automotive industry knows.
Elliot Mason, who owns a major British company specializing in tire recycling, tells the BBC that he has no doubt about how the tires are actually disposed of.
– I don't think there's anyone in the industry who doesn't know it's happening.
Every year, India allows the import of up to 25 million used tires. In the country, the tires are often treated using a process known as pyrolysis.
This involves placing the tires in large containers, which can be compared to pressure cookers, and subsequently heating them to a temperature of around 500 degrees Celsius.
The plants that use pyrolysis to break down tires are often located in rural areas. As the BBC describes in their report, the conditions in these factories can be directly harmful to the health of the employees and the surrounding area.
– The conditions in these factories – which are often located in rural areas – can be both toxic and harmful to health, the media writes.
The pollution emitted from the process poses a real risk to local residents, with potential health consequences such as heart problems and various forms of cancer.
The handling of the many imported tires thus poses a serious burden on both human health and the environment in the affected areas in India.
The payment that British motorists make for the recycling of their old tyres does not necessarily guarantee environmentally or health-friendly treatment of the waste product.
