This Egyptian Village Runs On Used Tyres

Mit Al-Harun village has spent decades in recycling used tyres into reusable stuff

While cities continue to discard excessively used old tyres, there is one village in Egypt which welcomes the universally-rejected stuff. Say hello to Mit Al-Harun whose residents have been into recycling used tyres into different products such as baskets to construction material. The villagers proudly say that it is an art which they have learned from their ancestors.

Located some 70km north of the famous Cairo city, the village is known as the hub of recycling rubber. The used tyres reach this spot from across the country in massive trucks.

The usual day of the villagers starts with sharpening their knives which would be used to cut tyres piled on the roadside. Working on his shop, the 35-year old Abdelwahab Mohamed says that the entire village is into the business of recycling old tyres. We inherited from our forefathers, he cites. On the question of how much price do they get for one tyre? He said, 4 dollars.

The inhabitants of this village cut through the tyres and pull out non-rubber material such as wire rings which are then supplied to iron and steel factories for recycling. Furthermore, the tyre rubber is cut into smaller pieces which are used by cement factories in place of low-grade mazut fuel oil. Remaining is used as mulch for covering playgrounds.

Another worker, Mostafa Azab is into making baskets from used tyres of industrial and farm vehicles. Explaining the technique, he says, “We cut the tyre in half, then we split its inner layers using a winch, before shaping them into baskets and hammering nails around the edges to make them hold.”

With few more labours in his workshop, Azab is able to churn out 80-120 baskets each day after processing 10 tyres a day. One thing his brother, Haitham, admitted that the task is exhaustive and they would have quit this business if there was an alternative to it.

 Learning for us?

With the Indian automotive market being among the fastest-growing markets in the world, the number of used tyres abandoned every year is rising. Can we have a system in place wherein these tyres get recycled or leveraged to produce alternate products just like this Egyptian village? Well, it’s time to think out of the box. The problem of dumping old tyres exists in India, it’s time when some startup can try their hands in putting used tyres back to use.

Recommended Read: The Problem With Dumping Tyres