TERRY WINSTANLEY: Government needs to get to grips with waste tyres crisis

Waste tyres rarely make the news. Generally, people don’t think about what happens to their tyres after they’re replaced. But waste tyres have serious environmental and economic implications that effect all South Africans.

The management of waste tyres — or lack thereof — has damaged the environment and failed to stimulate a recycling economy. A change in approach is urgently needed. 

The size of SA’s waste tyre problem is significant. Some estimates put the volume of waste tyres produced each year as high as 300,000 tonnes. These tyres need to go somewhere. 

Tyres are designed to be durable and tough, so they do not degrade easily. They litter the landscape and are often burned to access scrap steel in the informal economy. A burning tyre releases a host of pollutants that end up in the air we breathe, the water we drink and the ground that sustains our biodiversity. 

Without the implementation of a clear waste management plan — including recycling and creating a market for re-used tyre products — more and more tyres end up being burned, discarded or just stockpiled in ever-growing depots. 

Waste tyres are often being stored in ways that create serious environmental risk. As the tyre depot fire in Lichtenburg, North West, demonstrated last year, simply piling waste tyres at government facilities is a serious fire hazard.

Other events also point to a wider management crisis. In March 2022 the auditor-general identified as a material irregularity by the department of forestry, fisheries & the environment payments made for the leasing of land required for tyre storage, resulting in a financial loss of more than R4m, and there might be further losses as the contract was ongoing. The loss was also disclosed as fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Despite this expenditure, no tyres were apparently being recycled.  All indications are that used tyres will still keep piling up and we should therefore be responding to the risks this can create with greater urgency.

Since 2012 a levy of R2.30 has been imposed on each kilogram of tyre sold. This is completely in line with the government’s “polluter pays” principle. It generates hundreds of millions of rand a year — money that should be used to fund the handling and recycling of waste tyres, as well as the creation of new reused rubber markets. We have a responsibility to make sure this collection mechanism is applied in the best interest of all South Africans. 

People working in the waste industry point to 2017 as a turning point. Before that date SA was considered a global leader in waste tyre management. In 2012-17 the Recycling & Economic Development Initiative of SA (Redisa) implemented a waste tyre plan, with considerable success. 

Waste pickers collected waste tyres and took them to collection depots, from where they would be transported to central processing plants, where a lot of the rubber would be shredded and reused in crumbing (as component in artificial surfaces and road construction) and craft-based uses (such as shoes and household items).

However, in 2017 the Redisa plan was withdrawn. It is now becoming clear that for seven years there was little or no progress from the government in implementing an alternative plan. In May 2021, during a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting, a representative of the Waste Bureau (which is now responsible for the management of waste tyres under the department) said it would finalise and implement an Industry Waste Management Plan by 2022.

However, a plan was only adopted by the cabinet in March 2024. The plan is now the subject of litigation by Redisa, which approached the high court in September to review it and set it aside.

Serious allegations are made in the litigation. These include that the plan does not outline the necessary budgetary detail, fails to use important information and projections, sets unrealistic processing targets, provides inadequate stability to would-be investors in processing plants, assigns overlapping responsibilities and followed a procedurally flawed process in its creation and adoption. 

If these allegations are proven correct we not only haven’t moved forward in seven years, we have regressed. Considering what is at stake — the creation of collection, transport, storage and recycling jobs up and down the waste chain, as well as ensuring that the toxins and pollutants of used tyres are managed correctly — this is unacceptable.

The recent announcement of the composition of the government’s Waste Tyre Management Industry Advisory Committee, which will have to advise on the implementation of the Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan, is also regarded by many as problematic because it does not adequately represent the full range of stakeholders.

It would be productive, and also in line with fair representation, to appoint more committee members who are knowledgeable about waste management, and to avoid perceptions that tyre producers have a disproportionately large voice on the committee.

There are also concerns that tyre producers will counter the use of quality second-hand tyres as they have a vested interest in selling new tyres. Quality second-hand tyres are a useful tool in minimising tyre waste. 

Three hundred thousand tonnes of tyres a year is an extremely large amount of waste. It is a huge threat for our environment, but also holds immense promise for economic growth opportunities through recycling.

There are legal, moral, economic and environmental cases to be made that fixing waste tyre management should be an urgent priority for our government. 

• Winstanley , who has worked in environmental law and policy for the past 30 years, has acted for Redisa in the past, but has not done so recently. She writes in her personal capacity.