How protecting the environment "works" in England.
George makes many interesting points apart from the obvious in the first paragraphs.
Worse than plastic waste: the burning tyres choking India
George Monbiot
The British government is already flouting its own rules, allowing scrap tyres to be sent abroad for burning – what will happen post-Brexit?
@GeorgeMonbiot
Wed 30 Jan 2019 17.00 AEDT
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‘Every month, thousands of tonnes of used tyres leave our ports on a passage to India.’ Illustration: Sébastien Thibault/The Guardian
What we see is not the economy. What we see is the tiny fragment of economic life we are supposed to see: the products and services we buy. The rest – the mines, plantations, factories and dumps required to deliver and remove them – are kept as far from our minds as possible. Given the scale of global extraction and waste disposal, it is a remarkable feat of perception management.
The recent enthusiasm for plastic pr0n – footage of the disgusting waste pouring into the sea – is a rare reminder that we are still living in a material world. But it has had no meaningful effect on government policy. When China
banned imports of plastic waste a year ago, you might have hoped that the UK government would invest heavily in waste reduction and domestic recycling. Instead, it has sought new outlets for our filth. Among the lucky recipients are Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam,
none of which have adequate disposal systems – as I write, our plastic is doubtless flooding into their seas. There’s a term for this practice: waste colonialism.
Our plastic exports are bad enough. But something even worse is happening that we don’t see at all. Every month, thousands of tonnes of used tyres leave our ports on a passage to India. There they are baked in pyrolysis plants, to make a dirty industrial fuel. While some of these plants meet Indian regulations, hundreds – perhaps thousands – are
pouring toxins into the air, as officials look the other way. When tyre pyrolysis is done badly, it can produce a hideous mix: heavy metals, benzene, dioxins,
furans and other persistent organic chemicals, some of which are highly carcinogenic. Videos of tyre pyrolysis in India show
black smoke leaking from the baking chamber, and workers in T-shirts, without masks or other protective equipment,
cleaning tarry residues out of the pipes and flasks. I can only imagine what their life expectancy might be.
https://www.theguardian.com/comment...an-plastic-burning-tyres-india-george-monbiot