The UK sends most of its waste tyres abroad as bales. The Environment Agency estimates the UK exports between 210,465 and 432,566 tonnes of waste rubber a year, 89 per cent of it to India — around 50 million tyres. Each bale leaves with most of its value still inside.
The export route is getting harder
In July 2025 the Environment Agency published a review of waste tyre exports. It found it "highly likely" that a proportion of UK tyres were being diverted to illegal pyrolysis on arrival in India, which banned imports of waste tyres for pyrolysis in July 2022.
From 1 October 2025, exporters to India must show that their tyres are managed in an environmentally sound way, or the shipment is prohibited. By mid-December 2025 the Agency had accepted 41 Indian recovery facilities and rejected 13, and said it would publish further findings in 2026.
None of this stops export. It does mean fewer destinations, more checks and more cost per tonne — and a closer look at what happens to the rest of the tyre's value.
What the UK gives away
A baled tyre is sold at the bottom of its value chain. The higher-value outputs — recovered carbon black, reclaimed rubber, crumb for roads and surfaces, pyrolysis oil — are made wherever the tyre is processed. When that is overseas, so is the margin, the jobs and the material.
Meanwhile, European tyre makers are looking for recovered carbon black nearer home. Continental signed a ten-year purchase agreement with Pyrum Innovations, a German pyrolysis company, in 2024. Michelin and Bridgestone see potential demand for about a million tonnes a year by 2030.
The case for capacity at home
- Feedstock is already here. Tens of millions of tyres a year are collected and baled in the UK.
- Buyers are nearby. Tyre makers, road builders and fuel refiners in the UK and Europe want consistent recycled material.
- The export route carries more risk than it did before October 2025.
- Processing at home keeps the value — and the oversight — in the UK.
What it would take
Plants that meet a buyer's specification, with offtake signed before construction; permits and sites that work for both feedstock and buyers; collectors willing to supply a UK plant instead of a shipping container; and capital that sees the full chain, not only the gate fee.
Export to India will keep a role, through facilities that meet the new standard. But for a growing share of UK tyres, the better route may be one that never leaves the country.
Related: Infrastructure and project development, Recycling routes and market access.
Sources
- Resource — Environment Agency announces enhanced checks on waste tyre exports to India (7 August 2025)
- letsrecycle.com — EA tightens checks on waste tyre exports to India (15 January 2026)
- Continental — ten-year purchase agreement with Pyrum Innovations (30 July 2024)
- European Rubber Journal — Michelin, Bridgestone see potential for rCB demand to reach 1m tonnes by 2030 (28 November 2022)