The tyre scandal

轮胎丑闻

The Documentary Podcast

2025-06-12

27 分钟
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Every year the UK produces around 50 million tyres for disposal. They are supposed to be sent for recycling. Instead, big money is being made by diverting tyres to illegal and dangerous 'pyrolysis' plants where they are melted down to extract oil and steel. Together with a team of journalists from Source Material, a not-for-profit group specialising in climate and corruption, we follow the tyres from the UK to India using tracking devices. The team discovers just how large scale this largely illicit business has become. Earlier this year, a makeshift pyrolysis plant exploded near Mumbai, killing four people. It had been processing tyres from abroad. Reporter Paul Kenyon confronts a tyre trader in the north of England who admits to shipping his waste tyres to India for pyrolysis.
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  • This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

  • An Air India plane has crashed into a residential area near an airport in India's western city of Ahmedabad seconds after takeoff.

  • The head of the Civil Aviation Authority says there were more than 240 people on board the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner en route for London.

  • Videos on social media show thick black smoke rising into the sky.

  • Emergency services have been battling the blaze at the crash site.

  • Listen to the Global News Podcast wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

  • Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service.

  • I'm Paul Kenyon and I'm investigating what happens to our vehicle tyres when we throw them away.

  • You'd be forgiven for assuming they're all recycled.

  • After all, we pay a small levy in the UK to make that happen.

  • But it's not always the case.

  • So I'm going to take you on a pretty wild journey into a little-known black market that feeds off our tyre waste,

  • causing huge environmental damage and even death.

  • Most of us in the UK have a car and most of us at some stage need to get our tyres changed.

  • I'm here.

  • Let's see if Eddie's around.

  • Eddie!

  • How are you?

  • Very good to see you.

  • I need my tyres changed.