Green Queen: recycled tyres

I have a new addition to my living room and I absolutely love it: a big funky container like nothing I've ever seen. It is modern, rugged and a bit scrappy looking and, at Dh129, a steal.

It is just one of a range of fun products included in The One's recycled tyre collection. Although its most obvious use is as a "looks heavy but is actually light" planter, I've got newspapers stashed in mine. It fulfills a long-held wish: I've always wanted something to put my newspapers in, but have refrained until now because it seemed like a waste of money and energy to buy a specially made product. But reusing tyres is something to feel good about no matter what the use and what is inside.

Dubai alone has eight million discarded tyres, with millions more lying around in other emirates. Not only are tyre piles ugly, but they are highly flammable and can lead to fires that are not only incredibly difficult to extinguish but also highly toxic to the environment. And, although the tyre industry has made gains on the recycling front, it's estimated that about 25 per cent of old tyres end up in landfills. Once there they take hundreds of years to break down - even longer than plastic.