RECYCLING ? As a Missionary Reality we are very conscientious about all our recycling and make sure that all articles for recycling go to the correct places. But we realize that we are not aware for the most part what happens next. Just to highlight this aspect the following article on recycling of tyres shows the dangers and how people may suffer as a consequence.

We all need to change our Car tyres at some stage. Every year the UK produces around 50 million tyres for disposal. They are supposed to be sent for recycling. Instead, big money is being made by diverting tyres to illegal and dangerous ‘pyrolysis’ plants they’re melted down in makeshift furnaces to extract oil and steel.

File on 4 investigates with a team of journalists a not-for-profit group, specialising in climate and corruption, followed the tyres from UK to India using tracking devices. The team discovered just how large scale this largely illicit business has become. Earlier this year, a makeshift pyrolysis plant exploded near Mumbai, killing four people. It had been processing tyres from abroad, almost certainly from Europe and the UK.

Listening to Radio 4 on 26th March 2025 I heard a Reporter confront a tyre trader in the north of England who admitted to shipping his waste tyres to India for pyrolysis. It was a shocking story as I heard women in India saying how their village is being polluted by these makeshift furnaces. Their children are “coughing all the time and many are becoming very ill and dying”.

Recently I had to change one of my tyres and I spoke to Tahir in my Garage and asked him how he disposed of his tyres. He was very surprised to hear the above story.

This call us to greater awareness, further study and perhaps might even encourage us ask questions from our Garage owners or share with our neighbours and friends.

Sister Nora Mary Ryan International Ecology Commission from the United Kingdom