Hazard: Old tyres are collected for recycling (above) but the flawed management plan to do so has resulted in huge stockpiles. Photo: Redisa
The government’s approved plan to manage South Africa’s mountain of old tyres has hit the skids with a legal challenge from a nonprofit company that formerly managed waste tyres.
In September, the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa) hauled the department of forestry, fisheries and environment to court over the Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan, which it said “masquerades as a solution” to the crisis.
Former forestry, fisheries and environment minister Barbara Creecy approved the plan, which Redisa now wants reviewed and set aside, in March last year. In its court documents, the nonprofit said the plan had unachievable and unrealistic targets, lacked any budgetary detail, failed to use the available information and projections, and was created and approved in a procedurally flawed manner.
Redisa also accused the current minister, Dion George, and his department of “flouting legal process” by missing every single court deadline since the case was filed. The department only filed its notice to oppose on 13 December.
In his founding affidavit, Redisa chief executive Herman Erdmann noted that although a promising start was made to recycle old tyres in 2012, “little progress” had been made since 2017.
Since 2012, Redisa was responsible for the implementation of a waste tyre recycling scheme — the only one of its kind in South Africa — which entailed the creation and management of a national network for collecting discarded tyres, storing them and delivering them to recyclers for processing.
This was envisaged as the beginning of a nascent tyre recycling industry, and the foundation of secondary industries for the use of products created by recyclers.
In September 2017, Redisa and its management arm, Kusaga Taka Consulting, were placed in final liquidation, based on a request from former environmental affairs minister Edna Molewa. In January 2019, the supreme court of appeal overturned the liquidation order.
Redisa said that, since 2017, the department has been “mismanaging” discarded tyres, with depots filling up and becoming fire hazards, while tyre dumping is increasing.
“Large amounts of waste tyres are also being burned every day in the informal economy to access scrap metal. Burning tyres release poisonous chemicals that greatly damage the health of humans, animals and plants,” it said.
The waste tyre management plan’s stated objectives are to facilitate the processing of discarded tyres and to reduce the negative environmental effects in an efficient and effective manner while supporting enterprise development and job creation in a circular economy, expand South Africa’s capacity to process old tyres and to develop systems to monitor progress and to manage its implementation.
Meeting these objectives will address problems relating to the disposal or recycling of old tyres. These include the annual inflow of discarded tyres that exceeds processing capacity, over-full depots and the resultant backlogs at tyre dealers, over-full depots that pose a high fire risk, and the lack of investment in infrastructure to process discarded tyres, it said.
In his founding affidavit, Erdmann said Creecy’s “belated” approval of the plan, more than four years after the department started work on its preparation, should have been a welcome development. Yet, despite the availability of funds, the plan is “fundamentally flawed” in its conception and “incapable” of meeting its required purpose.
R5 billion has been raised by the government in the form of a specific levy imposed on the sale of every new tyre sold in the country since 2017, which continues to be raised.
“Regardless of the hundreds of millions of rands this brings in annually, less than half of the levies collected have been applied to managing waste tyres. Funds intended for the creation of recycle-related jobs have thus stopped contributing towards that goal,” Erdmann said.
The approval and implementation of a rational and reasonable plan, though “not in the form approved”, is a mandatory requirement of binding local law, which is necessary for the effective management of environmentally harmful tyre waste in accordance with lawful prescripts.
“It applies to an industry that rapidly produces such waste, in circumstances where management has failed or deteriorated, especially in recent years. This is despite the fact that waste tyres, if properly managed, are a potentially valuable economic resource, ideally suited to the full application of the polluter pays principle, the ‘waste management hierarchy’ and the promotion of a circular economy.”
A baseline study by the department in 2011 estimated the annual inflow of old tyres at the time was more than 246 631 tonnes, he said.
It concluded that every year only 4% of those tyres were being properly managed according to the legislatively mandated waste management hierarchy. The remainder go to landfill or, “even worse”, are disposed of informally in the environment.
The annual additional threat to the environment and to the country and the well-being of its citizens has not abated in the past 13 years, Erdmann said.
“It is apparent from the information regarding collection of the waste tyre levy placed before parliament by the minister of finance in his budget review in February 2024, that the annual inflow during the year to 2024 was expected to be 246 245 tonnes — or 246 million kilogrammes,” he said.
The annual inflow is now “dwarfed” by the stockpile that stands in enormous depots, waiting for a waste tyre management processing industry that has not materialised.
“The gravity of the situation that South Africa currently finds itself in, and the urge for the need to address it in a rational, reasonable and meaningful way, is graphically illustrated by the stockpile of waste tyres [at depots] that line many of the country’s key arterial routes.”
Erdmann cited as an example how the Westonaria depot is at least at 100% capacity. It covers a footprint of 28 000m2 and has tyres packed to a height of three metres.
“Apart from being an eyesore, the depots are an environmental hazard as they are prone to fires producing acrid smoke and discomfort.”
Last year, a fire at the Biesiesvlei depot in North West raged for days before it was extinguished.
Erdmann noted that the precise extent of the country’s stockpile was unknown but the waste tyre management plan estimated it to be 900 000 tonnes at the end of 2022. The true number is more than double this, he said.
“It continues to grow at an alarming rate because of the country’s lack of processing capacity while at the same time the collection of the waste tyres has suffered as many depots are full to capacity.”
Ironically the emergence and growth of the stockpiles was the result of “well-intentioned but ultimately unsuccessful attempts” made to properly manage tyre waste.
“From 2012, recognising the potential to process waste tyres into useful products and a much-needed energy source … with concomitant financial benefits for the country as a whole, the applicant was tasked under the Redisa plan, with collecting the waste tyres and starting to develop a viable processing industry; however these efforts were stymied in 2017,” Erdmann said.
While the department continued to collect old tyres and store them in depots, and while the most recent processing statistics indicated “somewhat of an improvement” over the situation that existed in 2011, the expected development of the processing industry “simply hasn’t materialised”, he added.
He said the plan is devised in such a way that at the end of the 15-year period “when the stockpile is used up and the ‘steady state’ is reached, the thriving and growing processing industry that will have been created (with a capacity of over 476 000 tonnes per year) will immediately have to shed more than 40% of that capacity with concomitant economic chaos”, including the permanent loss of jobs.
Peter Mbelengwa, the department’s spokesperson, said that while it is committed to transparency, it “is not the department’s intention to litigate this matter in the court of public opinion or through the media. This case is currently before the courts, and the appropriate platform for addressing these claims is within the legal process.
“Unfortunately, the claims by Redisa are often so blatantly misleading that it is difficult not to respond to them. The department confirms its intention to oppose Redisa’s application and remains committed to robustly defending its position.”
The department is compiling a comprehensive record of decision, which will be submitted to the court shortly, he said.
“This record will address the allegations raised by Redisa and provide detailed context regarding the Department’s actions, aligned with its mandate to ensure effective and sustainable waste management practices.”
Mbelengwa referred to the minority judgement of the Supreme Court of Appeal’s ruling on this matter. “The judgment provides a comprehensive overview of the manner in which Redisa operated, including significant governance failures and the mismanagement of public funds.”
Mbelengwa said that in terms of the IWTMP, the minister has appointed an Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) to oversee the waste tyre sector and to advise the minister on its operation and improvement.
“The IAC represents a broad spectrum of industry players and government departments. In the IAC’s last report to the Minister, it notes a significant improvement in the operating environment and has expressed confidence in the business plan developed to guide the management of waste tyres to effect an improvement in the operational environment.
“This plan is being implemented, with progress reported quarterly to the IAC. The IAC’s report does not support Redisa’s claim of a sector in crisis.”
The plan provides updated and reliable data on the inflow of waste tyres, estimating annual waste tyre generation starting at 229 613 tonnes in 2023, with a projected increase to 287 070 tonnes by 2038. These figures are based on industry-wide data and rigorous analysis.
He said the IAC and the department’s Waste Management Bureau are also engaging with national treasury for additional data at a tyre type level for additional information to support decision-making.
“Redisa’s claims about the economic impact of the DFFE’s approach stand in stark contrast to the findings of independent audits and the SCA minority judgment, which highlighted severe governance lapses during Redisa’s tenure. Redisa failed to meet its performance targets, misused public funds, and engaged in conflicts of interest that undermined the integrity of its operations.”
Many of the claims raised by Redisa, including the utilisation of environmental levies, informal tyre burning, and job creation in the recycling sector, are “matters at the heart of the ongoing litigation. These issues will be addressed comprehensively through the judicial process, which is the appropriate platform for resolution.”
The plan, he added, outlines the current framework for waste tyre management, including data projections and planned initiatives.
“It also focuses extensively on how to develop a commercially viable, vibrant, domestic waste tyre processing sector in order to attract private sector investment, develop needed alternative waste treatment infrastructure, create decent, new, green jobs and grow the economy for the benefit of all.”