Narrator: This is one of Nigeria's
first tire-recycling businesses.
Workers start by ripping out the steel wires
so the rubber can be cut, shredded,
and turned into bricks for driveways and playgrounds.
This is softer and actually a bit bouncier.
Narrator: Ifedolapo Runsewe started Freee Recycle
back in 2018.
Now, her company recycles hundreds of tires per day.
We have over 400,000 tires stockpiled on site.
Narrator: But it's only a tiny slice of the problem.
Humans throw out around a billion tires every year.
Recycling them gets expensive and complicated,
so in most countries, they just pile up in landfills.
And here in Nigeria, they can help spread malaria.
Ifedolapo: We have stagnant water that can then
become a breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Narrator: So why is it so hard to recycle tires?
And why are tire graveyards so dangerous?
More than half of all the cars in Nigeria
are in and around its biggest city, Lagos.
So there's a good chance old tires
will end up with a roadside mechanic like Samuel.
Narrator: He saves any tire he can't fix
to sell to Freee Recycle.
Samuel and other shop owners, like Adams,
make about 30 cents for each tire.
Narrator: Today's haul will be stored in the lot
behind Freee Recycle's 2.5-acre facility.
When Ifedolapo wanted to launch the business,
no one believed she could make money out of a pile of tires.
They kind of looked at us like we're crazy,
and generally, that was the reaction.
Narrator: But now, she has more than
100 full-time employees,
and the business makes about 16 cents
for every recycled tire.
My first tire, the first baby,
was recycled in in October 2020.
Narrator: The first challenge is removing the steel wires
embedded within the rubber.
So one of her first investments was this machine
called the debeader,
which removes them in about 20 seconds.
Next, the tires head to this chopper,
which cuts each one into four or five pieces,
making them easier to work with.
The company can process about 150 car tires per hour.
The same things that make tires durable
also make them hard to recycle.
In the 1800s, Charles Goodyear
accidentally dropped rubber treated with sulfur onto a stove
and discovered a process
to harden the material called vulcanization.
It made rubber stronger and resistant
to extreme temperatures,
exactly what cars need out of tires.
As more Americans started driving,
rubber production exploded in the early 20th century,
and most of it came from plantations in Southeast Asia.
And then World War II happened.
Newscaster: The verdict is in on rubber.
The enemy now has over 90%
of the world's source of raw rubber.
Narrator: The Allies needed a lot
of rubber for trucks, cars, and planes.
The US asked its major manufacturers
to find an additional source.
Newscaster: Synthetic rubber, one of wartimes's
newest industries, one of America's modern miracles.
Narrator: Today's tires are a blend
of natural and synthetic rubber,
reinforced with metal and plastic fibers
to make them more durable.
But no matter how tough they are, they don't last forever.
And all of the old rubber quickly piled up.
By the end of the 20th century,
the US had accumulated well over a billion old tires.
In landfills, they can leach toxins, and when buried,
they can sometimes trap methane
or other gases and literally float to the surface.
They also burn fairly easily.
In 1987, about 30 acres of tires caught fire in Colorado.
It took almost a week to put them out,
and the incident brought this kind of waste
into the national spotlight.
Within a few years, all but two states passed laws
that helped fund a new tire-scrap industry.
By 2021, the US had reduced the number
of stockpile tires to just 50 million.
Now, America burns a third of its used tires
to fuel cement kilns and paper mills,
and another third are turned into rubber surfaces
like artificial turf.
Less than 20% ends up in landfills.
But in developing countries like Nigeria,
tire waste is still a growing problem.
The country ranks in the bottom 10% worldwide
for recycling and sustainability.
But Freee Recycle is aiming to change that.
At the factory outside of Lagos,
the shredder rips tires into chunks.
These drums crush them into even smaller pieces.
Workers rake the remnants over vibrating screens,
and the large vacuums prevent rubber dust
from filling the factory air.
Pieces 5 millimeters and smaller fall through.
Larger chunks go back through the process
and get crushed again.
Magnets pull out any remaining metal shards.
Narrator: These are reinforcement fibers
usually made of plastic, nylon,
or some other synthetic material.
Now, all that remains is rubber.
The final vibrating screen separates the different sizes:
powder, which will give a softer feel suitable
for playgrounds and gyms,
and 3-to-5-millimeter crumbles,
which are durable enough to use for driveways.
To make those pavers,
rubber crumbs twirl inside heated mixers.
A polyurethane binder helps hold everything together.
It took a long time to figure out the right ratio
that could work in Nigeria's tropical savanna climate.
A mix or a formulation that would work
in, let's say, Europe wouldn't necessarily work here.
So you just have to find what works best.
Narrator: Dyes adjust the color.
A small layer of the colored mixture
goes into the mold first.
Then the rest of the brick is filled in
with undyed rubber mix,
which helps cut down on manufacturing costs.
Then it is pressed down by hand and loaded onto trays.
Narrator: Finally, it sits in an oven
to dry for up to eight hours.
Nigeria's unreliable electric grid means the factory
has to make most of the power it uses.
Eighty percent of our power is generated internally
from diesel-power-generating sets.
Narrator: Workers tap the dried pavers out of the molds.
On a typical day, they make roughly enough pieces
to cover an entire tennis court.
Every tire produces about 25
of these dog-bone-shaped rubber bricks.
Now, they're ready to ship.
Scrap tires have become a $12 billion global industry.
In the US, Europe, and Japan, most get recycled,
and many are burned to create energy.
Tire-based fuel costs less than natural gas
and burns cleaner than coal.
But it still produces emissions comparable
to other fossil fuels.
In another method called pyrolysis,
tires are heated to extreme temperatures without oxygen.
Advocates claim it's the cleanest way to recycle them,
but it requires a lot of energy,
leaving small profit margins.
In the US, a third of recycled tires become new surfaces
in homes and playgrounds or mulch for gardens.
In response to public concerns
about shredded rubber leaking toxins,
one US federal agency said it couldn't prove
there were any health risks, but it recommended
that kids should not eat the rubber. Sound advice.
Back in Lagos, Freee Recycle's top-selling items
are paving stones used in playgrounds
like this one at an international school.
We've been very happy with their service.
The product's good.
Narrator: The thick rubber provides
a nice bounce for children at play
but also makes repairs and additions easier.
Phaethon: If you want to add more services or add more structures,
you just remove it, and when you finish, put it back.
Narrator: While Freee Recycle aims to eliminate
all of Nigeria's tire dumps,
for now, this waste stream is still growing.
But that's not Ifedolapo's only concern.
The mother of two is raising a family
and a business together.
She says Freee Recycle is on the verge of becoming profitable,
and she continues building it, brick by brick.
I think she's like a natural fixer.
She saw a problem.
She found a solution.
Charming, but she's disturbingly efficient.
Narrator: She plans to expand throughout the country,
as well as Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Kenya.
I would like to see us tackling more waste,
different types of waste, your paper waste, electronic waste, PET bottles.
That's why our tagline is "waste to wealth."