UK Lawmaker Presses Government for Four Tyre Recycling Reforms
Tyre Recycling Policy
A UK lawmaker has called on the government to make four key reforms to tyre recycling policy, warning that idle domestic capacity and unchecked exports are holding the sector back.
A Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality
Speaking at an industry briefing day, the MP criticised the widening gap between government policy talk and on-the-ground industry conditions. The main complaint was a double standard in enforcement: strict digital waste tracking applied to compliant domestic operators while overseas exporters were given repeated extensions.
Idle Capacity While Waste Is Exported
The speaker pointed out that over 150,000 tonnes of licensed domestic recycling and remanufacturing capacity sits completely idle while whole tyres are shipped abroad for processing under weaker environmental standards. That offshoring, the argument runs, actively undermines British reprocessing infrastructure.
Four Reforms Put Forward
The MP urged a statutory withdrawal of T8 exemptions, adoption of a shred-only export model banning whole and baled tyres, ironclad enforcement of timestamped and geotagged proof of arrival, and statutory green public procurement mandating recycled-rubber use in fleets and rubberised asphalt on public roads.
A Sector Speaking With One Voice
Industry representatives backed the calls, arguing the UK has the processing infrastructure, technical capability and private capital to build a circular tyre economy, but lacks a regulator willing to end illegal whole-tyre exports and enforce green procurement. The message was a united push for policy that backs domestic recycling over export.
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Put Domestic Tyre Recycling to Work
Policy is shifting toward keeping end-of-life tyres processing close to home — and the infrastructure must be ready.
Klean Industries delivers the pyrolysis and recycling systems that let operators capture that value domestically.
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