Illegal tyre exports are a shocking symptom of the UK’s waste problem  – Inside track

Last week, a BBC investigation exposed shocking details of the UK’s role in exporting millions of used tyres to India under the guise of recycling. Instead of being processed legally, many are burned in illegal pyrolysis plants, releasing toxic emissions that are endangering the health of workers and local communities. The process generates hazardous chemicals, including dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, linked to respiratory diseases, cancer and cardiovascular issues.

Some plants have even had explosions, killing workers. Despite claims of strict regulations, industry insiders admit the UK is one of the worst offenders, shipping half of its 50 million annual waste tyres abroad. The black market for waste tyres is well known, with many UK businesses prioritising cheap disposal over ethical recycling. 

We are using the rest of the world as our dumping ground
Tyres are just the tip of the iceberg. The UK exports vast amounts of waste, from textiles, to plastics, to e-waste, placing an unsustainable burden on other countries. Waste exports at the level we are creating overwhelm the recycling capacity of recipient countries, making leakage into the environment common. We are the second highest exporter of used textiles and the worst offender for illegally shipping e-waste abroad, with as much as 40 per cent of our e-waste processed in this way.  

Rewind to 2021, when the story in the news was plastic packaging exports rather than tyres. Greenpeace exposed the dumping of plastic waste in Turkey, complete with shocking photos of British grocery packaging in piles of smouldering plastic. It’s illegal to export plastic waste from the UK unless it is destined for recycling or recovery, but if that destination country is overwhelmed by more waste than it can handle or lacks the right infrastructure, waste that should be recycled leaks out into the environment. In 2023, the UK government rejected a recommendation to ban all plastic waste exports by the end of 2027, despite calls from the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs Committee and a separate government-commissioned independent net zero review.  

Overconsumption is the invisible hand causing global harm
Burning piles of mismanaged tyres or plastics are stark illustrations of the UK’s waste problem, but the problem runs deeper and is worthy of even greater outrage. It’s not just these waste exports causing harm across the world, it’s our whole model of overconsumption. 

Per person, the UK consumes over twice the resources the planet can sustainably provide, driving the triple crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. And high income nations like the UK are using six times more resources per person than low income countries, far exceeding their fair share in terms of populations and resource limits. To sustain this, raw materials are being extracted from poorer nations, at low prices that don’t account for the environmental and social damage inflicted. In fact, 73 per cent of the materials used in UK products and services come from abroad, which shifts the burden harm: deforestation, pollution and species extinction, onto other countries. 

Waste crime is the symptom of a disease
While we should be deeply concerned about where our rubbish ends up, the driving force is the creation of these awful mountains of waste in the first place. It starts long before we throw stuff away. In a wasteful linear economy, raw materials are extracted to turn into products which are used briefly and then discarded. This is driven by inflated demand for low quality goods, not built to last and often neither needed nor truly valued. To reduce the amount of toxic rubbish we dump on the rest of the world, we must first stem this flow of pointless waste. 

The government’s focus on waste crime is understandable. Illegal exports cause obvious and severe harm, and waste crime is estimated to cost the UK economy over £1 billion annually. But fixating on enforcement risks ignoring the root cause. In 2020, the UK produced 191.2 million tonnes of waste, more than our domestic waste industry can handle. This is solved by legal, and too often illegal, exports, with the devastating environmental and social consequences we are seeing.  

Setting and following rules on what materials can be exported, where to and in what quantities, is important. But you can’t handle an overflowing bathtub by regulating which water can flow out. You have to turn off the tap. The answer is not just stricter crime enforcement but waste prevention. Without systemic change, we will continue to avoid the true costs of our consumption, and too often find ourselves treating the rest of the world as our dump. 

Public outrage about these individual waste scandals is justified, but it needs to translate into real action to address the underlying reason they happen. The culprit is more than a handful of dodgy exporters, it’s our throwaway economy. Until we shift away from this, we and the rest of the world will continue to drown in waste.