The Environment Agency (EA) has launched a comprehensive review into shipments of waste tyres from the UK to India.

Last week, BBC File on 4 Investigates heard that millions of these tyres – sent for recycling – were actually being “cooked” in makeshift furnaces, causing serious health problems and environmental damage.

The pressure group Fighting Dirty has threatened legal proceedings against the EA over what it called a “lack of action” over the issue of tyre exports.

The EA has asked the group to wait until its own review is complete, and it has also asked File on 4 Investigates to share the evidence from its investigation.

The UK generates about 50 million waste tyres (nearly 700,000 tonnes) every year. According to official figures, about half of these are exported to India, supposedly to be recycled.

But BBC File on 4 Investigates revealed that some 70% of tyres exported to India from the UK and the rest of the world are being sent to makeshift industrial plants, where they are “cooked” in order to extract steel, small amounts of oil as well as carbon black – a powder or pellet that can be used in various industries.

Conditions at these plants – many of which are in rural backwaters – can be toxic and harmful to public health, as well as potentially dangerous.

In January, two women and two children were killed in an explosion at a plant in the western state of Maharashtra, where European-sourced tyres were being processed.

A BBC team visited the site and saw soot, dying vegetation and polluted waterways around. Villagers complained of persistent coughs and eye problems.

Following the broadcast, the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) told BBC File on 4 Investigates that officials and lawyers within the EA were “very keen” to investigate the claims made in the programme, including any potential criminal activity.

In a letter seen by the BBC, lawyers for the EA said that our investigation would be carefully considered as part of a review it has launched into its approach to waste tyre shipments.

They added that the EA has been working to engage the relevant environmental authorities in India on this issue and is taking steps to arrange a delegation to meet with officials later this year.

Fighting Dirty founder Georgia Elliott-Smith, who has been in correspondence with the EA over this issue since 2023, said it was a “major victory” for the group and that “the government must stop turning a blind eye to the illegal and immoral activity”.