Wells and Mendip Hills MP Tessa Munt has called for tougher controls on waste tyre exports after addressing the Tyre Recovery Association.

Wells and Mendip Hills MP Tessa Munt has taken her campaign over Britain's waste tyres directly to the industry, calling for tighter controls on exports and greater use of recycled rubber at home.

The MP was keynote speaker at the Tyre Recovery Association's annual meeting in Coventry, where she addressed delegates on the theme of "Giving REAL Meaning to the Circular Economy".

Munt said she began looking more closely at the issue after being contacted by businesses in her constituency, including hauliers and recyclers. She has since raised waste tyres repeatedly in Parliament.

She told the meeting that around 1,000 tonnes of whole end-of-life tyres — which she said was equivalent to about 40 shipping containers — are exported from the UK each day, with many going to India.

Munt said she was concerned that tyres exported as material for recycling could instead end up in informal batch pyrolysis operations, with consequences for air pollution and groundwater.

"Every day, legitimate, tax-paying, environmentally compliant British operators are being systematically undercut by unaccredited brokers," she said.

"How can we preach net zero at home, while dumping toxic waste abroad? It's utterly bonkers."

The MP is now pressing Defra ministers for changes to the way waste tyres are handled and exported.

Among the measures she wants the Government to consider are withdrawing T8 waste exemptions so tyre operators work under a permitted and audited system, and adopting an Australian-style "shred only" approach to exports.

She is also calling for export licences to be revoked where exporters cannot provide geotagged and timestamped photographic evidence showing tyres have arrived at an audited facility.

Closer to home, Munt wants public bodies including councils and National Highways to make greater use of retreaded tyres and rubber asphalt through their procurement policies.

She said: "I am appalled that as a country we outsource our environmental responsibilities to the developing world and call it 'recycling'.

"We must stop exporting our responsibilities, rebuild British green manufacturing — including the use of shredded tyres in our roads, as in other countries — and finally, give real meaning to the circular economy."

Munt said she intends to continue pursuing the issue with ministers and added: "I will keep taking this fight to the floor of the House of Commons."

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