World’s biggest tyre graveyard on fire with toxic black smoke seen from SPACE at site storing seven million wheels

INCREDIBLE images show toxic smoke billowing from the world’s biggest tyre graveyard that can be seen from space.

Gigantic holes in dug out of sandy earth in the Sulaibiya area of Kuwait hold around seven million tyres.

Thick smoke from the blaze at the six acre facility has been captured on satellite.

The tyres are believed to be from both Kuwait and other countries which have paid for them to be taken away.

Four companies are in charge of the disposal and are thought to make a substantial amount from the disposal fees.

Many have questioned the wisdom of storing such combustible materials in a country where the temperatures brush 50C.

The government of Kuwait has begun to tackle the 30 year build up tyres in the desert that has seen 52 million dumped at various sites.

TOXIC SMOKE

It a bid to make way for housing, there are plans to remove 95 per cent of the tyres to be recycled.

In 2012, five million tyres were deliberately set ablaze by a fire in another Kuwaiti tyre dump.

The local population was spared by sheer good fortune in that the wind blew the hazardous smoke across the Gulf.

Disposing of used tyres continues to be a problem for many countries.

Burning of tyres releases carcinogenic dioxins into the air and pollutants can trigger health problems including asthma.

In Britain, where an estimated 486,000 tonnes of tyres are discarded each year, nearly all are recycled or reused.

In the 1970s and 1980s efforts were made in the US and South East Asia to create artificial reefs using discarded tyres.

But they have become environmentally disastrous after tyres were dislodged during storms and damaged nearby coral.