Rubber tires — a dirty business | DW Documentary
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Published 2019-09-17
The biggest producer of natural rubber for tires is Thailand. More than four million tonnes of rubber are harvested annually in plantations there. And demand for rubber is ever growing - because ever more tires are needed. But the labor conditions in Southeast Asia are harsh - with working days of up to 12 hours and very low wages. In addition, toxic herbicides banned in Europe are used to fight weeds on the plantations. After the harvest, the ‘white gold’ rubber is sold to brokers, who, in turn, sell it on. German tire manufacturers, like Continental, for example, are keen to stress that they use "natural commodities conscientiously.” But many car drivers don’t give a second thought about where the rubber in their tires comes from - and why we don’t recycle used tires more effectively.
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All Comments (21)
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Its been SO LONG since I saw real journalism I almost forgot what it was like. GREAT JOB.
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Me and wifey produce rubber in Thailand. Used to be a good living. 5 years ago the price was B50/kg. Today the price is B18.5/kg. Ask yourself this: has the price for your tyres dropped by +50% in the last 5 years? The price for natural rubber is affected by the oil price. As the oil price drops synthetic rubber becomes cheaper and the demand for natural rubber drops. The peopele who make the money are the middlemen, processors and tyre manufacturers. It's always the farmers who suffer. We stopped production last year because the price was so crap.
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The documentary has touched every aspect of the tyre industry from plantations to middlemen to manufacturers to consumers... I will now not hesitate to use refurbished tyres for my vehicle as long as they meet the safety standards.
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The time that you have invested to film this and share with us is greatly rewarded. Lots of respect from INDIA 🇮🇳. Thanks alot for your hard work. In India the food products were purchased by brokers from farmers at 25% of the market price and then they simply bag them and add 75% and sell. Let's say 100 kilo of beans baught for 2500INR from former end user will pay 100 INR per kilo which is 10000 INR per 100 kilo. The government is least conserned and when we try to report somewhere we will be beaten up by police. It's my humble request for DW documentaries, if possible please film these issues in India and post them on your channel.. please....
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The quality of documentaries DW produces is outstanding everything from the pronunciations of words to the quality of the video is incredible. Please don't stop working and i sincerely hope that your documentaries have some even if little changes.
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I don’t know how to appreciate DW for their efforts for public awareness. Thanks all of your efforts.
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Man DW really goes to great lengths to bring us these documentaries. Thanks so much
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Thanks for this video, DW. I am Cambodian, after watching this video I felt really bad for my people who work in Thailand and also in my country too. I can say I was lucky coz most of the people in my village work in Thailand, but my parents sent me to study instead of working abroad. I never imagined that the working conditions were really bad.
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To be honest, i did not searched for this. But i'm not regretting.
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Hearing the 80 year old man say that he's been working for 50 years, I collapsed myself into thinking, I take a lot of things in my life for granted.
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I am a Sri Lankan, same story in my country. Not only the workers in Rubber sector but also Tea, Coffee, Spices and coconut plantation workers have been working since colonial times under harsh conditions, backed then Britain made humongous profits ever since British has left US, Europeans and China have been working collectively and making huge profits. Literally peanuts to the farmers, landlords and Sri Lanka. Many thanks to your channel 🙏
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The essence of investigative journalism found in this documentary. Big applaud for this effort to expose the agony behind tyres business. Almost all the big businesses have same dilemma.
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A guy sets out for a family vacation and ends up traveling across the word to tell a story.. nicely done ✅
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Reporter: can I film? Company: no Reporter: Hold my hidden camera 🤣
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First of all love the flow of information, especially on how they started with something seamingly as family vacation and actually ending it with same family vacation. It gave me the knowledge of wanting to know more about some of the little things in life. Thanks DW for the proper investigative journalism
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You sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. Thank you for great journalism and exposing the corruption in the tire industry. Thank you for great work.
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I love how they won't allow them to film the factory, so they send up a drone instead :)
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That was quite disturbing especially when you consider how much tires cost today. I suspect none of my money made it to those workers.
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Your reporting was very well done. It was a very hard report to watch at times because of the harsh reality of the rubber workers. Thai and Cambodian people are some of the kindest most generous people I have met. I hope this report helps fight for these hard working wonderful people. Thank you
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real ballsy to fly a drone over the factory that you just spied on and followed the truck of, good journalism!
