Tyres: Waste Disposal
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason the Environment Agency changed the evidence threshold for geo-tagged photographic proof of arrival under the enhanced Annex VII verification procedure for waste tyre exports to non-OECD nations, when mandatory Digital Waste Tracking requirements on compliant domestic UK tyre reprocessors is introduced domestically; and what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of those changes to exporter compliance on UK recyclers.
Answered by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Environment Agency's (EA) enhanced verification checks, which required evidence to demonstrate that waste had been correctly received overseas, examined more than 10,000 waste tyre shipments between October 2025 and July 2026 and found no evidence of widespread diversion to illegal pyrolysis. The EA has therefore moved to a risk-based approach, focusing scrutiny on operators of concern while maintaining regulatory oversight. The EA has not identified adverse impacts of this approach on compliant UK recyclers.
Future phases of Digital Waste Tracking are planned to strengthen information reporting requirements for exports of Article 18 wastes, including waste tyres.
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