A levy of R2.30/kg would be introduced on new tyres manufactured in or imported into South Africa from February 1 to pay for the collection and recycling of waste tyres, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa announced in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Over 200 000 t of tyres become waste tyres in South Africa every year, with about 11-million used tyres being dumped illegally or burnt to retrieve the steel wire in the tyre. “With this figure estimated to increase by around 9.5% annually, the country has a serious waste tyre problem,” Molewa said at a briefing.

The Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) promulgated the Waste Tyre Regulations (WTR) that took effect on June 30, 2009, compelling tyre manufacturers and importers to compile and submit an Integrated Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan (IIWTMP).

“Although all the stakeholders in the industry were invited to submit such a plan with their registration, only two plans passed the initial screening. These where provided by the South African Tyre Recycling Process (SATRP) Company and the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative South Africa (Redisa), two nonprofit companies,” the Minister said.

The two plans were subjected to the process as prescribed by the WTR, and the Redisa proposal was selected as government’s new model to respond to the waste tyre problem.

The Redisa plan proposes to use the levy on new tyres to provide an incentive to the formal and informal recycling sector to collect waste tyres from illegal dumps and caches around the country and gather them at central depots from where disposal would be managed.

Redisa CEO Hermann Erdmann told Engineering News Online that there are numerous uses for waste tyres, including the distillation of certain chemical compounds, extracting the metal components out of tyres, burning tyres as secondary fuel in kilns and also turning waste tyres into usable artefacts such as swings for kids and sandals.

“One of the important elements of Redisa’s plan was to include the informal sector to be able to collect and get paid for the waste tyres it collects, owing to a significant number of people in South Africa making a living in this way. A significant focus point of the Redisa plan is to involve previously disadvantaged communities,” he said.

Redisa’s mandate is the collection, transportation and management of waste tyres.

Redisa’s aim is to establish a network of up to 150 collection depots across the country, which would employ up to 15 000 people, including about 5 000 people in the informal sector within five years.

A portion of Redisa’s operating costs would be spent on training and the support of small, micro and medium enterprises, while a component would be allocated to research which markets were suitable for products resulting from recycled waste tyres.

The DEA added that it had, in consultation with the Competition Commission, laid down strict requirements to ensure the independence and public accountability of Redisa, to ensure that the process of managing waste or any environmental problem is not manipulated to the advantage of narrow industry interests.

Further, Redisa must maintain confidentiality of market-sensitive data to ensure that no competitive advantage is given to any industry player.

Redisa would also appoint external auditors for a five-year period, to which the subscribed companies would provide monthly declarations of tyre production, including rejects, imports and exports. Subscribers would also be required to provide yearly audit certificates reflecting the monthly declarations.

Currently, tyre producers and importers are required to register with the DEA. These companies would use the DEA registration number to subscribe to the Redisa plan.

“All relevant stakeholders must now align themselves to the Redisa plan by January 31, or face legal consequences,” Molewa warned.

OPPOSITION

However, SATRP Company CEO Dr Etienne Human told Engineering News Online that certain regulations were not followed when the plans where scrutinised. “We had not received any feedback, as per the regulations, from the DEA as to why our plan failed. If, by tomorrow 13:00 we do not receive a response from the Minister’s office, we will proceed with a legal challenge,” he said.

Democratic Alliance spokesperson for Water and Environmental Affairs Gareth Morgan also deplored the Redisa plan.

“Despite the existence of another long-standing industry driven plan on the table, the Minister has effectively given Redisa a monopoly over tyre recycling in South Africa, as manufactures, dealers and importers must become a subscriber to the plan as long as it is the only plan approved by the Minister,” he said in a statement.

Further, he argues that the Minister failed to conduct a regulatory impact assessment to determine what the R2.30/kg tyre levy would cost the industry and what the related impacts on the industry would be, adding that she flouted WTRs by failing to publish the plan in the Government Gazette for a 30-day comment period or bring it to the attention of relevant organs of State and interested persons.

“The Minister also overestimated the number of jobs that can be created in tyre recycling alone. She approved a plan that will cost far more than any job creation benefit, due to the intended establishment of a complex bureaucracy of up to 150 costly collection sites around South Africa,” he said.