At the end of February, European Union legislators passed the first steps to tightening export of waste materials from its members. End-of-life waste tyres were said to be one of the items specifically referenced in the EU’s updated Waste Shipment Regulation.
Under the updated EU regulation, waste cannot be sent to non-OECD countries unless the country concerned is willing to import it and can demonstrate the environmentally sound management of waste through auditing by independent bodies and monitoring by the European Commission.
The TRA has said that legislation will “leave Britain with the unenviable reputation as the only major European nation legally able to export baled end-of-life tyres to countries like India”.
Figures recently released by India’s Automotive Tyre Manufacturers’ Association (ATMA) showed that India imported around 800,000 tonnes of scrapped tyres between April and November 2023.
‘Environmental assault’
The TRA said that UK and European Union member nations were the majority contributors. The association and other professional recyclers fear that with waste exports to common destination in Asia banned, “irresponsible” British operators and exporters are the likely receptacles for “negligent European operators looking to dump their product abroad”.
At the end of February, the TRA wrote to Defra minister, Robbie Moore: “As the minister responsible, ensure we do the right and best thing – respond to the Indian calls to only export shredded tyres, grow our own circular environmentally responsible market and follow the very successful Australian example.”
Australia are said to have banned the export of most whole ELTs in 2020.
The letter continued: “To be blunt, now is time the UK government acknowledged that far from tackling this environmental assault, current policies enable some UK operators to facilitate serious environmental harm.
“It is embarrassing for us as an industry to know such malpractice takes place. It must be humiliating for those leading British policymaking to know how far the reality has drifted from their rhetoric. It is hard to find the green, environmental or circular in the current UK waste tyre policy framework, yet the solutions are clear and simple.”
‘Political lethargy’
Peter Taylor OBE, secretary general of the TRA, said: “Without the necessary policy update, Britain will shortly be the environmental sick man of Europe, home to unscrupulous operators taking malign advantage of the European Union’s tighter rules. Britain is set to be the only European nation exporting environmental waste beyond its shores without proper scrutiny or oversight.
“Currently, the UK has at least 150,000 tonnes of licenced idle domestic recycling capacity of its own, but the business case for maintaining this is being undermined by political lethargy. If the government acted, we could be at the front of the environmental pack – building the circular economy we all want to see. But if the government does not act, we will see a decline in standards.”
To find out more about plastics, please visit the National Letsrecycle.com Conference on 6 June at QEII Centre in London. To book tickets to attend or for more information please click here.
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