Britain’s dirty secret: the burning tyres choking India

Article Summary

In this article, the author exposes Britain’s dirty secret: the burning tyres choking India. Every month, thousands of tonnes of used tyres leave British ports on a passage to India. There they are baked in pyrolysis plants, to make a dirty industrial fuel, the side effect of which is the production of a hideous mix of heavy metals and chemicals, some of which are highly carcinogenic. With the British government having a loose tyre trading license policies which do not bother to check whether the plants that receive tyre imports in India meet EU’s safety and pollution controls the author questions if the lives of Indians are worth nothing to UK politicians. Its due diligence, the author says, consists of asking tyre exporters which companies they intend to sell to, then asking the Indian government whether those companies are legit. Arguing that they are classed as “green waste”, it washes its hands of them as soon as they leave British shores. The authors attempt to put questions to the government about these issues were met with no response. It seems to him that the government is happy to dump its mess on other people. If this is the way it is prepared to operate before Brexit – flouting its own rules on behalf of British exporters – imagine what it might do after we have left the EU, wonders the author.