Nigerian company turns old tires into paving bricks, floor tiles, even flip flops

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Every year, millions of used car tires are discarded, creating waste, filling landfills, and perhaps emitting harmful pollutants into our atmosphere when burnt. According to a report by the Tire Industry Project, one billion end-of-life tires are generated globally every year. And an estimated four billion are currently in landfills and stockpiles worldwide. But these tires won’t be headed that way. As the world struggles to manage its waste, Nigeria’s FREEE Recycle is transforming old tires into paving bricks, floor tiles, flip-flops, and other goods. Managing Director Ifedolapo Runsewe says it’s not hard to spot the problem on Nigeria’s streets. “I think if you take a five-minute walk or ten-minute walk, and I guarantee you that you will spot at least ten tires, right? Then you find them in drainages, you find them in street corner where they ideally shouldn’t be,” she says. FREEE Recycle started operations in 2018 with about four employees. The workforce has since jumped to over 150 staff on site. The company says it has retrieved over 600,000 tires. Over 400,000 of those have been recycled into new products. The tires are processed and ground into small pieces. They’re then mixed with an adhesive that lets workers shape the waste into all manner of products. The company’s most popular product is its rubber paving stone, which costs about $60 for a set of 40. FREEE products are available in major Nigerian cities, including Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. Some recycled products are slightly more expensive than their traditional counterparts, the company attributes this to the extended shelf life of their products. Bolanle Emmanuel, the Oyo state coordinator of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council, says one of the challenges will be “getting the raw materials down to these sites.” “This is the only recycling, tire recycling industry that I’ve seen in Nigeria. Getting ingots like these and tires to rubbers like that,” she says. FREEE Recycle believes it has prevented more than 8,100 tons of CO2 emissions since it began. This article was provided by The Associated Press.