The photographer Andrew Esiebo travelled around the city capturing how car tyres otherwise destined for the dump are finding second lives as seats, fe

‘In Nigeria, a tyre never quite dies’: reinventing the wheel in Lagos

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2024-06-16 01:00:03

The photographer Andrew Esiebo travelled around the city capturing how car tyres otherwise destined for the dump are finding second lives as seats, fences and swings

T he work of a vulcaniser is not unlike that of a surgeon, says the Nigerian photographer Andrew Esiebo. Armed with precision tools, vulcanisers across Nigeria extend the lives of tyres otherwise destined for the scrap heap.

“Vulcanisers are like doctors for tyres because the way they work is like surgery,” says Esiebo, who has chronicled how used tyres are being repurposed in Lagos in a photography series exhibited as part of the British Academy-funded Pneuma-City project.

“In Nigeria, a tyre never quite dies. It’s made from non-degradable material. However, even when the tyre is out of the car, there’s still a use for it.”

Esiebo’s work shows repurposed tyres scattered across the city, where they are used as flower pots, football goalposts, punch bags, makeshift tables, swings in a park and even seating in trendy bars. A company in Nigeria, he says, is recycling waste tyres to become floor tiles for a playground.