The Minister for Environmental Affairs, Ms Edna Molewa, has today approved the REDISA Waste Tyre Management Plan for immediate implementation. The plan replaces the REDISA plan that was suspended in terms of an interdict granted on 20 November 2012.
The legal challenge to the implementation of the REDISA plan, launched in August this year, contained a long list of criticisms. The case was heard on the 8thof November, with judgment delivered on 20th November. The judge found in favour or REDISA on all counts except one technical issue regarding the insertion of waste reduction targets into the plan after the public comment period, and determined that the plan should be suspended pending a review application. However, he also suggested that the Minister could simply withdraw her approval of the plan, and re-apply her mind to approving the plan with the insertion removed. This is what the Minister has now done.
Hermann Erdmann, REDISA CEO, commented “We are very pleased that the Minister has taken such prompt action to resolve the chaos that the suspension of the plan was causing in the tyre industry. Getting the plan suspended pending a review application meant that the industry would have been in a state of uncertainty for months, not knowing if the waste tyre management fee was going to have to be paid or not. A review application takes months to complete, and for all that time the industry would have had to provisionally set aside funds to pay the fee if the Review Court found in favour of the Minister, and deal with refund claims if it found against her.”
“By re-gazetting the plan,” said Erdmann, “the Minister is following the resolution proposed in the judgment and bringing sanity back into the tyre market.”
South Africa produces around 11 million scrap tyres every year which typically end up in landfills, dumped in the veld, or illegally burned for their scrap steel content. This is creating a growing health and environmental problem. The REDISA Waste Tyre Management Plan will establish a network of transporters to collect scrap tyres from the entire country, supply them to recyclers, and provide support and help to develop secondary markets for the recycler’s output products. In doing so, the plan is designed to create jobs, particularly in the informal sector, and create majority Black-owned small and micro businesses.
Read more:
Court says no interdict against REDISA
REDISA wins SATRP legal action
REDISA appoints two senior tyre industry people
REDISA plan approved for re-gazetting by Minister Molewa
REDISA extends deadline of waste tyre plan
Wheels of change now in motion