Kuwait recycles massive tyre graveyard

Kuwait: More than 42 million old vehicle tyres dumped in Kuwait’s sands have started to be recycled, as the Gulf state tackles a waste problem that created one of the world’s largest tyre graveyards.

The massive dump site was a mere 7km from a residential suburb. Residents were bothered by periodic large fires releasing noxious black smoke. But this month Kuwait, which wants to build 25,000 new houses on the site, finished moving all the tyres to a new location at Al Salmi, near the Saudi border, where recycling efforts have begun. At a plant run by the EPSCO Global General Trading recycling company, employees sort and shred scrap tyres, before pressing the particles into rubbery coloured flooring tiles.