On July 23, 2008 an Agency officer visited a site in Bristol where waste tyres were being stored. The tyres were baled up and being loaded onto a 40ft shipping container bound for Southampton docks. Checks revealed the container was owned by a Malaysian shipping company and that the tyres were destined for export to China via Vietnam. The company storing the tyres said it was aware of the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007, but claimed the tyre bales were not waste because they were going to be used in the construction of motorway embankments.

However, under the 2007 Regulations the export of tyres to Vietnam is prohibited unless they are intended for re-use as a tyre on a vehicle. Any other use, including the export of tyre bales for motorway embankments, was illegal as baled tyres were not a recognised product and are therefore classified as waste.

BTR Limited of Canalside Industrial Estate, Oil Sites Road, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire was fined a total of £5,000 and ordered to pay £5,000 costs by Southampton Crown Court after pleading guilty to being involved in the transport of waste tyres to Vietnam, an offence under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulation 2007. The case was heard on Monday (October 5). Cases against the supplier of the tyres and the exporter of the tyres are still pending.

More information is available here:
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/111705.aspx