More vertiports will be set up in strategic locations across Abu Dhabi, including major business hubs and tourism destinations
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.
“The factory is helping society by cleaning up the dumped old tyres and turning them into consumer products,” said EPSCO partner and CEO Alaa Hassan from EPSCO, adding they also export products to neighbouring Gulf countries and Asia.
The EPSCO plant, which began operations in January 2021, can recycle up to 3 million tyres a year, the company said.
Scrap tyres are a major environmental problem worldwide due to their bulk and the chemicals they can release.
Oil-rich Kuwait, an OPEC member with a population around 4.5 million, had about 2.4 million vehicles in 2019, Central Statistical Bureau data shows, up from 1.5 million in 2010.
The government hopes al-Salmi will become a tyre recycling hub, with more factories planned.
The Al Khair Group transported more than half of all the tyres to the new site using up to 500 trucks a day and is planning to open a factory to burn the tyres through a process called pyrolysis, its CEO Hammoud al-Marri said.
Pyrolysis produces a type of oil which can be sold for use in industrial furnaces such as cement factories, and an ash known as carbon black that can be used in various industries.
More vertiports will be set up in strategic locations across Abu Dhabi, including major business hubs and tourism destinations
Kerala will decide the fate of 194 candidates as polling on all 20 parliamentary constituencies will be held in the second phase
Pecker is a key witness in the case against the former US president, who is accused of falsifying business records to cover up hush-money payment
The oil and gas conglomerate and Fifa, the world governing body, sign major sponsorship agreement
Toomaj Salehi risks being hanged after the conviction on the Shariah charge of "corruption on Earth" by a Revolutionary Court
Aid groups warn any invasion would add to already-catastrophic conditions for Gaza's 2.4 million people
The American they will face Australia and Serbia on July 15 and July 17 as part of their preparation for the Paris Olympic Games
The leaders emphasise that the deal to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza