TRA Warns UK Industry at risk as export compliance with new enhanced verification process is less than 2%

The Tyre Recovery Association (TRA) today issues a stark warning that a circular economy will be unachievable if domestic processing moves abroad, putting a circular economy out of reach. Data from the Environment Agency (EA) reveals that the new enhanced verification measure introduced last October is achieving a compliance rate of less than 2%.

The latest data from the Environment Agency shows that the new measures are being systematically ignored by exporters. Out of 4,189 shipments of waste tyres since 1 October 2025, just 54 post-shipment forms were completed correctly—a compliance rate of just 1.3%.

The update confirms that the vast majority of the UK’s 300,000 tonnes of annual tyre exports continue to find their way to rudimentary and illegal batch pyrolysis plants in India. The TRA warns that this failure is not just one of responsible environmental management, but an economic one. The UK continues to export the feedstock necessary to power its own circular economy.

While the UK continues to treat waste tyres as a disposal problem to be shipped away, the domestic sector is sitting on 150,000 tonnes of licensed, idle processing capacity. Introducing an enforceable regulatory environment the sector is ready to grow, creating jobs and high-value secondary materials.

Shred only massively reduces the risk of waste tyres being disposed of in an environmentally damaging manner and is a way of creating new value and reinvigorating our contribution to a dynamic circular economy in the UK creating a future of advanced domestic industries. Shredded tyres are a critical strategic feedstock for:

  • Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production.
  • Advanced Continuous Pyrolysis technology.
  • High-grade Recovered Carbon Black for new tyre manufacturing.
  • Rubberised Asphalt for long-life, sustainable road infrastructure.

Peter Taylor OBE, Secretary General of the Tyre Recovery Association, said:

“The Environment Agency’s transparency is very welcome, but the figures are an indictment of those tyre export brokers who continue to operate without conscience. To see a compliance rate of just 1.3% is ultimately depressing, these measures are a long way off having any meaningful impact.

“New measures need to be introduced so that EA can fulfil their statutory duty until then the export chain simply continues to abuse their goodwill. We must face the hard reality. Shred is the only immediate route to a circular economy and sustainable future for British operators. Unless we mandate that tyres must be mechanically processed into shred before they leave our shores, we will continue to fuel pollution abroad while our domestic recycling assets wither.

“Our neighbours and competitors are realising the opportunity from secondary materials. We continue to export the UK’s future in the back of shipping containers, while the rest of the world builds a circular economy. If the UK does not move to a shred-only mandate we will be left behind.”