Waste tyre plan withdrawn

THE Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan (IndWTMP) has been withdrawn by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, pending a review of the entire plan.

The Waste Tyre Plan was published in March 2024, itself after a lengthy delay following the closure of the previous plan, managed by REDISA, in 2017. Following a review and invitation for new bidders in 2018 (no bidder’s offer was accepted), the responsibility for collection and possibly reprocessing or safe disposal of waste tyres remained with the Waste Bureau, which offered the service of transporting waste tyres. To the best of our knowledge, just two tyre private enterprise tyre recycling ventures are presently active in South Africa (one of which is for large mining tyres) and these may be able to receive tyres delivered by the Bureau.

“The Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dr Dion George, has announced the withdrawal of the approval decision to allow for a detailed reassessment, ensuring the Plan fully aligns with the Department’s objectives of sustainable waste management and robust governance,” the DFFE said in a statement.

“The withdrawal enables a focused review to ensure the final Plan is implementable, transparent, and fully responsive to the operational and governance complexities facing the sector.”

The tyre manufacturers and importers continue to pay the tyre levy at the rate of R2.30 per kilogram (it is applied to new and retreaded tyres) and these funds are collected by SARS. The levy was implemented in February 2017.

REDISA (Recycling and Development Initiative of South Africa) was during its setup (2012-17) involved in the establishment of tyre collection and recycling centres and related infrastructure, including a lab/testing centre.

REDISA was at that stage still involved in the rollout of its model and had only just begun to access the funds and was at that stage not yet fully operational. It was shut down later in 2017 when the then Minister of the DFFE had it placed in provisional liquidation. It had faced a torrent of criticism from the SA tyre manufacturers and importers and the media. One of the main critics, the Cart Blanche television show, however, was challenged by REDISA and later issued a statement withdrawing all its allegations against the venture.