Rubber Tires: A Dirty Business
DW (2019)
Film Review
This documentary examines the brutally exploitive and unsustainable conditions in which tires are produced.
The filmmakers begin by visiting rubber plantations in Thailand, the world’s largest rubber producer. On one of the largest rubber plantations, Cambodian immigrants (Thai workers refuse to work for the starvation wages offered) receive approximately half the minimum wage ($140/month), despite working everyday and four nights a week. They are also exposed to Paraquat, a deadly herbicide causing severe liver and kidney disease and banned in 32 countries.
Pay and working conditions in Thai rubber processing plants are somewhat better. There workers earn $150/month ($250/month in the busy season), plus free accommodation and electricity and 20 kg of rice a month. Unlike plantations workers, they live in shacks provided with kitchens and bathrooms.
The filmmakers also visit Cambodian rubber plantations, where they speak with villagers who have been illegally driven off their land to make way for rubber plantations.
The final segment of the film investigates the tire retread industry, which recycles old tires by putting new tread on them. Studies reveal that modern retreaded tires are just as safe and reliable as new ones, despite using 80% less new rubber than new tires. With global demand for tires increasing by 7% annually, there needs to be a much greater effort to market retreaded tires to sustainability conscious consumers.
The tire manufacturers DW contacted about the atrocious working conditions on their rubber plantations and in their processing plants (Goodyear, Bridgestone, Michelin, and Continental) declined to be interviewed.
The Most Revolutionary Act 
It is dirty business already since Leopold II´s “private Congo Colony”!
Cordial regards
https://wipokuli.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/crimes-on-congo-part-1-from-destruction-to-destroyed-independence/
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Good link, Schluter. Thanks.
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It’s the same story over and over, but in different products. The government confiscates community land and sells it to corporations that take a hands-off approach and deny awareness of conditions in the field. I read awhile ago about this happening in the palm oil industry.
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Indeed, Katherine. There’s growing concern in the developing world about Wall Street starting yet a new cycle of rape and pillage for the Green New Deal – apparently they intend to lay claim to the Third World’s lithium and rare earth minerals – arguing they’re obliged to give them up to save the planet.
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