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Kuwait struggles to get rid of world’s biggest tyre graveyard

August 12, 2021 at 7:02 pm

Kuwait’s firefighters try to contain a massive fire in a dump for used tyres, on 17 April 2012 [YASSER AL-ZAYYAT/AFP/Getty Images]

Kuwait is struggling hard to scrap the world’s largest tyre graveyard, which scientists fear could create environmental and health hazards, Anadolu Agency reports.

Located in the Arhiya area, five kilometres (over three miles) south of the city of Jahra, the graveyard contained 50 million tyres, according to the previous statements by Kuwaiti activist Abdullah Al-Bunyan.

The dumped tyres, still to be disposed of, have been accumulated there over the past two decades.

Recently, a huge fire at one of the tyres landfills on Salmi Road south of the country was brought under control as firefighting teams worked hard to isolate the fire from the rest of the tyresand confined it to an area of 200 square meters.

The Arhiya tyres crisis was first recorded in April 2012 when a large fire broke out in the tyres landfills, attracting the world’s attention to the tire graveyard.

The April 2012 tyres fire was followed by another fire in November 2019 that took a long time to put out.

In October 2020, another tyres fire caused huge material loss.

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