A Cheshire-based company has been ordered to pay 10,000 GBP (16,000 USD) for its involvement in the illegal export of waste tyres to Vietnam , said the UK ’s Environment Agency (EA).

The case was the first-ever taken by the EA under tough new regulations controlling the import and export of waste to the UK .

EA officers discovered the case on July 23, 2008, when they inspected a site in Bristol where waste tyres were being stored. The tyres were baled up and being loaded onto a Malaysian shipping container bound for Southampton docks.

Under the Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulations 2007, the export of tyres to Vietnam is prohibited unless they are used for recycling for vehicles.

Any other use, including the export of tyre bales for motorway embankment, is illegal as baled tyres are not a recognised product and are therefore classified as waste.

Further checks by the agency revealed that between May and August 2008, a total of 40 containers of tyres were exported to Vietnam from the UK in five separate shipments.

Pursuant to the UK ’s regulations, only “green” (non-hazardous) wastes can be exported to non-OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries such as Vietnam .

In March 2007, Vietnam ’s Environmental Protection Department announced that it no longer wanted to receive waste tyres and removed tyres from the list of “green” waste./.