Kuwait Expands Tyre Recycling to Turn Waste into New Value

Kuwait has launched a national push to convert waste tyres into economic value, shifting millions of casings from legacy dumps such as Rahiya to specialised facilities in Salmi. Three plants are operating, with plans for new factories to handle up to two million tyres generated annually.

A meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah prioritised faster delivery and clear rules to stimulate investment.

Why Kuwait tyre recycling matters now

Kuwait currently has three tyre recycling facilities (two at Salmi and one in Amghara) processing tyres previously dumped or burned. Officials say annual arisings of 1.5–2.0 million waste tyres require added capacity to keep pace with demand and avoid future stockpiles.

New factories planned in Salmi

Authorities are advancing additional plants at Salmi to ensure all locally generated end-of-life tyres are recycled into usable outputs. Priority applications include rubberised asphalt for roads, athletic flooring, insulation and alternative fuels—channels that anchor durable domestic demand for recycled materials.

Policy, oversight and market signals

Officials highlighted tighter transport rules and Cabinet-backed oversight to prevent haphazard disposal and to guide tyres only to licensed recyclers, an approach designed to give investors confidence. International comparators were cited, with India’s market showing tyre-recycling revenues in the hundreds of millions to low billions of dollars annually. Kuwait aims to adapt best practices, including electronic tracking of end-of-life tyres.

Context from recent Tyre News coverage

• For policy perspective, see Tyre News’ report on UK MPs examining end-of-life tyre reforms and their implications for a domestic circular system.
• For technology scale-up, Tyre News covered Infiniteria’s Uddevalla plant milestone, reflecting momentum in advanced pyrolysis and recovered materials across Europe.

Government focus at the highest level

At Bayan Palace, Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah chaired a high-level session with municipal, environmental and industrial agencies to align on recycling acceleration, public-cleaning contract efficiency and routes to monetise recycled outputs for the state budget. The move signals Kuwait tyre recycling is now a national priority, not a peripheral waste issue.

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Tagged with: Kuwait tyre recycling, waste tyres, end-of-life tyres, Salmi recycling plants, rubberised asphalt, circular economy, Middle East recycling, environmental policy, recovered carbon black, tyre-derived fuel

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