South African tyre recycling plan withdrawn
A controversial plan to introduce a levy on new tyres to pay for the recycling and collection of used rubber has been halted by the South African government. The Recycling and Economic Development Initiative (REDISA) Waste Tyre Management Plan, which would mean a 2.3 rand (19p) per kilogramme charge on new tyres, had been approved and was open for registration by the end of January.
Its withdrawal comes just before a legal challenge to the bill by the South African Tyre Recycling Process Company (SATRP), which says it has spent “close to 9 million rand” developing its own plan. The Department of Environmental Affairs would have appeared at the South Gauteng High Court on Friday, 27 January to defend the decision to approve the REDISA plan by minister, Edna Molewa. SATRP’s Dr Etienne Human said he may still take court action. Currently the status of RESIDA is summed up as “delayed” by those behind the plan.
60 million scrap tyres
The bill was introduced in order to deal with over 10 million scrap tyres per annum in South Africa. Without a viable recovery programme in place, it is estimated that the country currently has 60 million scrap tyres. It had been thought that the government initiative would promote the removal of these tyres by local communities and entrepreneurs. SATRP believes that the move would stifle potential competition by creating an effective monopoly.
SATRP chairman Riaan van Niekerk said that the plan is “written in a way that means there is only one plan.” Van Niekerk comments that “two or three plans is good for competition” and claims that REDISA CEO Hermann Erdmann “wants a monopoly so that he can set his own prices.”
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