Conditions are they produced. The tires of my family car well past their prime theyre getting older and are a bit brittle and the need to replace them ahead of a Family Vacation has got me thinking about the origin and sustainability of tires on the market. Or a family run business is one of the biggest independent dealers in western germany. Id like to buy a set of new summer tires and want some advice on the store stocks the Standard Brands theyre all good quality but i have a different question on my mind. I just can i tell where a tire was produced is that possible. Yes. Made in china japan and the Czech Republic tires are clearly produced all around the world. Customers interested under what conditions the tires are produced. Very few to be honest. The customers arent interested in sustainability how the tires are produced for us it is of course an important factor but very few customers are interested to be honest. But the sales advisor is convinced that his product. Meet sustainability standards. Isnt much so i could buy any of these with a clear conscience a great name manufacturers place a lot of importance on sustainability so i think it would be better to stick with them because you can be sure that they are aware of environmental issues. And so i think you can buy tires with a clear conscience. Because. We want to make our own assessment so we head off for Southeast Asia. Thailand is the worlds biggest producer of Natural Rubber. More than 4000000. 00 tons of it are harvested on its plantations each year over the last 30 years production here is grown by 300 percent. And. Bangkok is the center of the rubber trade. Were meeting journalist to be into a car to cool has written extensively about the industry. Even from the car its clear what a big role the tire industry plays in thailand. After all its not just Natural Rubber that is produced here but many tires are too. Theyre then shipped around the world in containers but its not easy to get a glimpse inside the business here. Well as the industries play the Important Role of tool tyco to me so. I think the people in this industry might want to keep some secret was damn states quite a bit difficult to get information from from them. Our 1st stop is in col kamaal district southeast of bangkok. Large amounts of rubber are grown here. Thanks to these contacts we gain access to one of the plantations. The owner inherited the plantation from his parents. And they have. It in the past this area was rain forest my parents cleared the whole area and started cultivating it 1st they planted rice and sugar cane but later they switched to rubber. The plantation begins right behind his house for the 1st time we see how rubber is harvested. The rubber latex strips out of an incision in the bark of a tree it can be harvested in a liquid state or through the addition of vinegar as theyre doing here to get the rubber to solidifying and harvested in solid pieces. Boss a product employs more than 50 workers our news plantation later we will discover what kind of conditions they live in. Boston ponte has just planted new rubber trees despite a glut on the market thats driven a steady drop in the price per kilo. We used to earn good money with our robber. The happy department. But 5 years ago the price suddenly plummeted. Now we have to say where we can to get by. If the plantation owner himself is feeling the pinch what about his workers. On the edge of the plantation we find their decrepit huts and. Their workers all come. Neighboring cambodia theyre willing to work for lower wages sometimes. Even. If you. Told them why work 12 hours a day 5 days a week. Sometimes more. Night has fallen on bosu pots plantation its the best time to harvest rubber on the cambodians are getting ready to go to work. Their night shift starts at 8 pm and ends at about 5 in the morning. With just head torches for light they slice deeper and deeper grooves into the tree trunks to keep the milky latex flowing. No has been working on the plantation with her family for the past 7 years. But 23 year old cant read or write. I earn very little here between 4005000 baht a month. A lot of people in them and for that i have to work every day and at least 4 nights. Hard night shifts for a mere 140. 00 euros a month thats around half of the minimum wage in thailand which is itself hardly generous. The family always ground theres a tribe in the morning to eat but sometimes they have to go without. In the rainy season we cant work and dont get paid. Then we often dont have anything to eat and have to go hungry. When it gets light nas daughter heads off to school she only gets to see your mother briefly and then the rest of the family is going to bed. And they own just 2 mattresses shared between 8 family members. Outside is not his brother. His job today spring herbicide. Hes using the extremely toxic product paraquat long outlawed in europe. And da feels safe wearing a mask. For the 25 year old doesnt realize is that paraquat can also be absorbed through the skin and can lead to severe kidney liver and heart damage. He should by no means be working without protective clothing and shorts but no one has told him to. Think. Before the harvest we have to kill the grass with poisonous chemicals otherwise snakes could hide in the grass between the trees and bite us. This is what it looks like before the herbicide is used and this is what it looks like afterwards. The chemicals remain in the ground for months not a single worker here is wearing protective gloves. After the harvest boss of bought sells his rubber to the woman who controls the trade in the area a broker she dictates the price as tradition as if he has no right to. Oh. Well alice alarmed by you know from here we send the latex to our partner factory for processing. That in our rubber is sent on to many well known for such as a good year for example. Yeah. We ask what factory she supplies. She calls to ask whether she can disclose their name but the company prefers to remain anonymous. Undeterred we decide to follow a truck we want to know who processes the robber. Our journey ends outside the gates of the tire while our young rubber factory which is mainly in chinese hands. We ask for permission to film. But we were immediately turned away and told in no Uncertain Terms that a written request is also pointless. From above its possible to get an idea of the scale of the factory that supplies the processed commodity to manufacturers worldwide. Then unexpectedly we do get a chance to look around a rubber factory although its considerably smaller. The owner shows us around her company also supplies tie why are young rubber among others and mainly processes liquid latex. The workers here are thai not cambodia we ask whether they get the minimum wage of 9000. 00 baht around 260. 00 euros. I earn 5000. 00 baht a month but when the price of rubber goes up again i might earn 20000. 00. And. They carry on hoping for better times. The minimum wage is 9000. 00. These people have another 1000 and so now because you didnt pay like a deli meat they often get. Paid like say 5050 what they bought me things because they are like if you can feel like 2000 to get one of them to get 1000 after all not. So the employees are not employees but you get a share of the profits and its that easy to undercut thailand scanty minimum wage. Behind the factory is the factories own rubber plantation amid the trees a ramshackle hot. Not far away we meet an elderly couple collecting rubber me. Me me. Me me. Me me like me. I mean im over 80 they out and ive been working here for 50 years. My back then the old gentleman was the boss. And the plantation was high up in the mouth. Of the. Clinton and his wife live in grinding poverty while the tire industry boasts worldwide sales of more than 1200000000 gardai so. We decided to confront the big name tire manufacturers based in thailand but japanese multinational bridgestone the worlds biggest tire producer declines our request for an interview. None of the manufacturers are willing to reveal their suppliers we try the german firm continental which has recently opened a new production plant close to the city of rye on. We contacted them several times before our arrival asking for an interview but most requests went unanswered just like this one. Continental which is based in hanover is the worlds 4th biggest tire producer and so it has a particular responsibility when it comes to determining working conditions in the sector. We hear that the Living Conditions of people on rubber plantations in neighboring cambodia are even worse than in thailand so we decided to head there. From the capital phnom penh and we travel north. Like in thailand there are rubber plantations as far as the eye can see. With the help of our interpreter we try to arrange a visit to a rubber processing plant. We made several requests for permission to film and while we dont get that we are allowed to watch production. We do film using a hidden camera. In. Here to the Natural Rubber is delivered in either solid or liquid form. The people running the factory tell us they supply their product to all parts of the globe. In the season we have to work from 6 in the morning to 10 at night. Sometimes when theres nothing to do. The workers are housed on the other side of the street. From the mothers fathers and their older children to Work Together in the factory or on the firms own plantation. Its a tough life. Factory workers are usually better off than plantation workers here they even have their own bathroom. And a kitchen of sorts. Good. We normal workers usually earn around 150. 00 a month in the factory for a 7 day week on top of that we get this accommodation free electricity and 20 kilos of rice a month. In the high season we sometimes earn 250. 00 a month and. We travel on to the ratana kiri province in north east cambodia. Here many indigenous communities live together in villages and farm the land. One of these villages is caught by the ton leeson river. Until recently the people here worked their fields and lived modestly but well in accordance with their own traditions. But those times are over their fertile fields were practically stolen from them. Big International Companies bought the land from the Government Land that had been in the communities hands for generations. Amid the Global Hunger for Natural Rubber the villagers fields were plowed up to plant rubber trees. But that today the community has lost almost all its land. When they rolled onto our fields with bulldozers and we stood up against them. But we didnt have a chance. Or they. Were theyve taken everything from us many families have nothing to eat. The village chief and 65 year old pu yon show us their land. Here where their crops one screw we find a lunar landscape ready for planting new rubber trees. The noise the company took our fields and graves and now theyve even stripped bare our sacred mountain. The people of concrete fused to work for these new masters on their own fields. Like many other villages theyre demanding the return of their land but they dont have much hope in the meantime new settlements have sprung up on their fields they house women and men who have moved to the area to work on the rubber plantations. They to live in desperate conditions. Every year the rubber harvest in cambodia grows by 67 percent and to this growth is not in sight. On the edge of the plantation the next field is being burned off to clear the vegetation and make space for even more rubber trees for even more rubber for car tires. Weve seen enough and fly back to germany to confront the tire industry with our findings. We try our luck again at continental headquarters in hanover. In 2018 the automotive supplier had a turnover of 44400000000 euros. No one here wants to be interviewed but they do at least give a written reply to some of our questions. Continental uses natural commodities conscientiously and develops it promotes and implements sustainable and responsible sourcing of Natural Rubber across the value chain. The statement continues continental is aware of its responsibility and aims to make an active and responsible contribution to promoting sustainably produced Natural Rubber continental also refers to its code of conduct since 2011 all our suppliers have had to agree to abide by our Business Partner code of conduct. We continue on to frankfurt to the German Rubber Manufacturers Association the w d k. Many tire mine. Factures are among its members its headquartered in a villa in the city center. Manas. K. s managing director the lobby group also has a code of conduct it sounds good at 1st. But and its members recognize their social responsibility to their own company to customers and suppliers to the environment and to society the actions of the companies are guided in particular by the values of integrity and fairness. This code of conduct has existed for some time now that it provided the basis for the sustainability charter that stipulates that we are responsible for the people who are employed across this robert value chain. But we cant influence everything right down to the farmer some 5. How can that be. But if we simply tried paying more for example. Then it would reach the 1st echelon of traders but there are 7 other traders beneath them so you never reach the farmer in end effect. We showed dollars and arent our footage from the rubber plantations. The opposite of that shocking its definitely shocking that i cant find any excuse or explanation for that we now definitely have to look to the future. Like continental the other market leaders bridgestone and michelin also dont want to give us an interview we try our luck in hand on here frankfurt where the worlds 3rd biggest tire manufacturer is based goodyear but we have no success here goodyears simply responds with a written statement goodyear doesnt buy Natural Rubber from cambodia resource less than 5 percent of our global requirements for Natural Rubber from thailand. It goes on we are committed to the responsible sourcing a Raw Materials including Natural Rubber. And the statement continues. We offer retread tires for commercial vehicles and aircraft reducing the use of Natural Rubber. But why does goodyear retread the tires of commercial vehicles and planes and not the tires of private cars which make up the vast majority of beer kills we visit germanys only big retread are for automobiles hyphenating us here worn down treads of tires are peeled off and replaced with new ones. I was taught say. If we look at this tire here we can see only its surface is worn so essentially the product is disposed when only about 20 percent of it is worn because thats absurd. In germany there is no legal obligation to recycle tires or because you really are supposed to source most of the old tires that he needs from france or spain. Or us but what happens to used tires in germany as a class just as there are various disposal methods but usually the tires are shredded and supplied to cement works which burn the tires for fuel rods thats the classic method but now because we have a surplus of old tires some cement works have stopped taking them or instead of paying for them they get paid to use them as fuel. In germany some 200000 tons of old tires go up in smoke each year while more and more rubber plantations are being established in Southeast Asia to satisfy the hunger for rubber of course the retreading process also requires fresh rubber but about 70 to 80 percent less than is needed to produce new tires does the sets look thats a tire that has been produced in exactly the same way as a new tires for the production steps were identical we have to fulfill identical legal requirements we conform to International Standards we have the same speed ratings these tires have to match up to new ones in every way. Tire read. Friends have an image problem there is 0 because you would use knows all too well its against. The local Authority Issued a call for tenders for equipping Police Vehicles with winter tires and this call categorically ruled out retreads. And thats even though the government always maintains that it places importance on sustainability so its only just and no one has been able to explain to me to this day what data or facts this decision was based upon. It is and. We would also be interested in finding out why the police in the city of wrecking halls and decided against retread tires. And year to our request for an interview was declined instead they issue a written statement on emergency call outs our vehicles face extreme situations police cars have to be able to cope with greater strains the normal vehicles on the road. But wrecking Housing Police dont say why a retread wouldnt be up to the job. We travel to the northern german state. Dime to one of germanys few independent tire Testing Laboratories we have an appointment with an expert. On. People in the police interacting halls and say they cant use retreads because they dont meet their eyes specifications can that be true kind of. This no weve been testing new tires for decades now. If every trade is produced from a high quality worn tire then it will much the performance of a new tire. On it and the police on the public in general should consider the environmental and financial arguments in favor of retreads as i was living the same time. Of any thoughts or does it kinda long now a days. We can definitely say that modern retread plants in europe are so advanced that their products can compete with new tires since a lot of does doesnt it just involve us and i want to be can. I decide to go for retreads this time and i wonder how my workshop will respond 1st of all the tires have to be balanced. By 3030 was what does that mean as does a slope that basically they can be easily balanced there are some as big name brands that are not that good up they cut the wood as much money so tallest. Im curious to see how they perform on the road. This time ive opted for sustainability im also confident theyre safe too and with peace of mind i set off on my Family Vacation. Even if the coronavirus is sending football into a forced break. I do whether we will still be bringing you that star is great and small. And a story is a good denture surrounding our favorite sport. Because we wont let the soccer fun stop just yet. Kick off. In 30 minutes on d w. The global corona crisis you can find more Information Online at g. W. Dot com. Don t. W. Social media channels. This is deja news live from for landing us coronavirus death toll exceeds 3000 with most of them in new york state its governor makes in an urgent appeal for medical volunteers as the u. S. Navy hospital ship arrives for the 1000 beds the governor warns of a quote Staggering Number of deaths are u. S. Correspondent as the latest also coming up in spain fears grow for the countrys elderly did reports that some Nursing Homes have been practically abandoned by workers relatives are turning to Digital Technology to help
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