It is common cause that South Africa requires a plan to deal with its growing ‘tyre mountain’ problem, which is growing at a rate of about 200 000 t a year, or one-million waste tyres each month. This is aggravated by the fact that about 11-million used tyres, are dumped illegally yearly, or burnt to retrieve the steel wire inside, resulting in air pollution.

However, the country made something of a false start earlier in the year when it unveiled the Integrated Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan and the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa) plan, which subsequently had to be withdrawn, owing to procedural deficiencies.




Although the Redisa plan was approved by notice in the Government Gazette published on November 28, the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) came in for criticism and eventually agreed to withdraw the initiative.

But what will it take to make real progress in dealing with this serious waste problem?




On one point, at least, there is firm agreement: the need for State-backed support to galvanise waste management.

Redisa CEO Hermann Erdmann argues that formalisation of a waste tyre collection and recycling industry will require subsidisation, owing to the low intrinsic value of recyclable materials in tyres, even as a fuel source.

“The big problem is dealing with waste that has insufficient intrinsic value to be recycled economically. Scrap steel is not a problem – scrap tyres are, because there are no processes, currently, that can profitably recycle them, not even for use as fuel, without some form of subsidisation,” explains Erdmann.

Waste tyre processing, and recycling in the broader sense, is not a profitable business; hence, the problems all over the world. At present, only 2% of waste tyres are reprocessed in South Africa, South African Tyre Recycling Process (SATRP) CEO Dr Etienne Human adds.

Globally, therefore, waste tyre collection and processing are often subsidised by private- sector levies, which are phased out over years as the waste tyres become an integral material for well-established processing plants, Human says.

“Governments, in general, do not subsidise waste tyre processing as it will create a prece-dent for other waste streams. Some form of levy has to be raised on either the waste tyre or a new tyre to fund the transport and processing of waste tyres,” he explains.

Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa also referred to this need for incentives during her speech at the launch of the Integrated Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan, in January.

Differences of Opinion

There is a difference of opinion, however, regarding the nature of the support required.

The Redisa plan, approved and then withdrawn by government, proposed a levy of R2.30/kg of tyres manufactured or imported.

Meanwhile, the SATRP plan proposes the creation of sustainable waste tyre processing businesses by creating a national fund through a levy on new tyres sold. But Human does not offer a specific levy figure.

“Given the right economic and guaranteed supply of waste tyres, incentives will unlock about R1-billion in processing plant investments in South Africa. Thousands of jobs will also be created, especially for previously disadvantaged individuals and small and microenterprises,” Human says.

As things stand, SATRP wants a fair hearing for what it describes as an industry initiative submitted under the Integrated Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan (IIWTMP), but rejected at the announcement of Redisa in January.

The proponents claim that the plan has been 12 years in the making and is supported by a significant portion of the tyre producers in South Africa.

Following an application by SATRP in the South Gauteng High Court, then acting Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Collins Chabane, who is Minister in The Presidency Responsible for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, withdrew approval and afforded SATRP an opportunity to resubmit its plan by April 30.

Key Issues

The SATRP initiative was created by leaders in the tyre industry, at the request of the DEA, but was rejected by Molewa for excluding some of the “key issues”.

“Examples of such issues include the inadequate consideration of waste hierarchy, which is the cornerstone of waste legislation in the country.

“In addition, the plan failed to address the inclusion and development of previously disadvantaged communities, which are currently involved in the informal tyre sector,” she explains.

Molewa also indicated that the SATRP plan did not make enough provision for job creation for previously disadvantaged individuals and was unclear on the waste tyre hierarchy of treatment, issues that are being addressed, Human confirms.

The Plan and the Critics

Erdmann states that about 15 000 small businesses and individuals have registered with Redisa and would have been paid a standard rate to collect tyres and take them to 150 Redisa collection sites across South Africa.

This would have been funded by the R2.30/kg levy on tyres manufactured locally or imported into South Africa, and was set to generate about R250-million a year to subsidise waste tyre collection.

“It is important to realise that, in the informal and microbusiness sector, injecting a few hundred-million into the system creates a lot more jobs than the same amount in formal business, and creates them where they are needed most,” Erdmann emphasises.

The IIWTMP aimed to collect and recycle, or use as a fuel in cement kilns, 200 000 t of waste tyres a year, Molewa says in a statement.

However, opposition party Democratic Alliance spokesperson for environmental affairs Gareth Morgan argues that any jobs created would not be sustainable after stockpiles of waste tyres have been cleared.

“It will, however, take up to ten years to clear the stockpiles and, if the economy grows, the volume of tyres being scrapped every year will also grow. A 4% growth over ten years means an almost 50% increase,” Erdmann responds.

But Morgan still argues that the Redisa plan would cost more than the benefits arising from job creation, owing to the intended establishment of a complex bureaucracy of up to 150 collection sites around South Africa.

However, Erdmann argues that 5 000 people are already informally employed in waste tyre collection without subsidisation. “Injecting an estimated R250-million a year into the transportation network focused on these small operators will lift many of them out of bare survival mode and will drive the creation of thousands of jobs.

“We have estimated that we can create 10 000 sustainable new jobs through this initiative. Also, there clearly are synergies: systems developed to deal with waste tyres could be applied to other waste streams.

“Further, Redisa will provide training aimed at the most basic level in regular, small doses to develop and formalise the transporters. The Redisa plan provides budgets for training, awareness campaigns and consumer education, social upliftment projects, and research and development around potential waste tyre use and recycling,” explains Erdmann.

“It is no use embarking on projects that create vacancies for people with the skills, experience and education that are, as a group, already fully employed. We need to create jobs for people with low skills levels, and then work at elevating them,” Erdmann asserts.

Structured Approach

SATRP’s Human highlights that a structured approach and good controls have proved to be key success factors in waste tyre collection programmes in other countries. “This is required as tyre dealers do not have space to store waste tyres, especially in cities, and, most importantly, the processors who are eventually contracted must be guaranteed a supply of material on a monthly basis,” he explains.

Further, waste tyre collection and processing can only succeed given willing industry participation, he says.

Able businesses are needed to employ or contract previously disadvantaged individuals or small and microenterprises, which will create jobs. The dumps of waste tyres in the veld and about 71 townships are to be cleaned up using specific targeted projects, which means that the community will then benefit, notes Human.

“About 5 500 sustainable jobs, in terms of waste tyre collection and processing, can be created in the longer term. Sustainable jobs will be created in formal collection and processing operations and areas around communities will be cleaned up,” he adds.

Currently, the 2% of waste tyre processing takes place in three shredding plants in the country and a small percentage is used as fuel. A few other plants convert some waste tyres into mats, playground equipment and pro-tection pads, says Human.

“Much more can be done with waste tyres, given sufficient funds to collect the tyres throughout the country and to support the significant investments required to build processing plants. Tyres are tough and require large shredders to cut them. A single primary shredder costs R6-million and uses large quantities of electricity. Besides this, much more equipment and processing are required.”

Nowhere in the world is waste tyre collection and processing done together with other wastes, as contamination is detrimental to all the wastes. “A small piece of glass, wood or metal renders the rubber waste unusable in recycling operations,” emphasises Human.

Therefore, waste tyres have to be removed from the commercial stream and not reused as partly worn tyres refitted to vehicles. “This is hazardous to road users and must be prevented,” he states.

The DEA said it aims to have an approved plan as soon as practically possible to ensure the implementation of the Tyre Regulations and to deal with the existing waste tyre problem. However, procedural requirements had to be met before a specific timeframe for development, review and approval could be given, says DEA spokesperson Albi Modise.

However, it is important to remember that the plan is intended to deal with the waste tyre problem in the country. Being waste, this has to be done in accordance with existing applicable waste legislation in the country, he notes.

“Further, the context of our country should be taken into account. We are responsible for improving the socioeconomic conditions in our country. We should therefore ensure that the different sectors contribute towards improving these situations,” he emphasises.