Wheels on fire no more - 24th September 2021

Once Earth's largest tyre graveyard, this desert wasteland is set to become a new city, teeming with life.

In operation for 17 years, the vast, two square kilometre site held over 40 million disused tyres and had significant negative environmental impacts, which include fuelling two extensive, toxic blazes.

Eventually ordering the site's closure, Kuwait's Environment Public Authority now oversees the tyres' disposal. Director General and Chairman Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah is pioneering recycling strategies.

Sheikh Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah: "We will not allow any tyres to be buried in the future. They will all get recycled and we will do what is necessary to put all waste in the country on the road map for recycling in the Salmiya area."

Following months of lorries making 44,000 trips from the site laden with spent tyres, they are now in secure storage that complies with international standards. These safeguard against further fires and, being close to Kuwait's industrial area, this new facility also enables easier transfer to recycling contractors.

The government's zero to landfill policy commits them to recycling every last tyre. One reprocessing provider is EPSCO Global General, whose CEO, Alaa Hassan, discusses the waste's potential.

Alaa Hassan: "The factory produces several materials, including tiles, materials used in playgrounds, materials used in walking tracks and those used in infrastructure."

As these facilities have the scope to process two million tyres annually, the government's counting on additional interest from other players in the rubber recycling sector.

Meanwhile, cleared of two decades of motoring detritus, the former tyre graveyard will spring to life as engineers set about building Saad Al-Abdullah City.