HYDERABAD: As many as ten 40 ft containers stuffed with scrap rubber tyres have been lying unclaimed at the inland container depot (ICD) in the city for three years now. While this indicates a huge demand for scrap tyres here, in some cases they are recycled and reused.
Though the containers have been denied clearance and a no-objection certificate by the customs department, it has been decided that the consignment will not be auctioned due to its non-compliance with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).
According to the officials, the company, which imported the consignment is a Mahbubnagar-based rubber recycling unit. “The person (company), to whom the consignment belongs to, has been importing scrap rubber tyres for a long time. But, this time we suspect that he is going to misuse it by selling it to third-party dealers and thereby cause a cascading effect of threat both to the environment and people,” an official said.
The customs department claimed that the two batches of consignments were imported in February 2015 and March 2017 by the same importer. Under the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade, it is a ‘restricted’ practice to import scrap rubber. However, experts in the industry paint a much more scary picture of what can go wrong if scrap tyres are imported in large number into India. “Scrap rubber tyres are a burden to foreign countries due to their strict environmental policies.
And, some countries from the Middle-East pay importers to take the scrap which covers more than the transport cost,” said Rajiv Budhraja, director-general of Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA). “In one incident, a lorry driver in Chennai was arrested for using tyres that had to be used in snowy conditions.
There could have been serious road accidents if the tyre ever burst considering the humid temperatures here,” he added. It may be mentioned here that scrap tyres, when imported, should have a cut on the treading on the surface and the tube should not be intact. In order to bring the illegal use of scrap tyre to the notice of enforcement agencies, the Union ministry of environment and forests has already started working to regulate the industry.
Substandard tyres are often imported
Brand new tyres that do not meet BIS standards are often imported. Scrap tyres, when imported, should have a cut on the treading on the surface and the tube should not be intact.