Tyre recycling gets under way in East Cape
TWO of the four tyre recycling depots planned for the Eastern Cape this year are already operational.
The latest depot established by the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of SA (Redisa) opened late last month in Port Elizabeth and has since handled 41 tons of passenger, 4×4 and truck tyres.
Redisa director Stacey Davidson said depots would be opened in Grahamstown and Somerset East before the end of the year.
Redisa depots, such as those operating at Arlington in Port Elizabeth and in East London, store waste tyres before they are delivered to recycling plants, small businesses and entrepreneurs countrywide. Redisa pays transport companies to move tyres from dealers and manufacturers to depots and recyclers.
Davidson said the only recycler in the region at the moment was Langkloof Bricks, which burns the tyres at 1 200°C to make bricks. Redisa supplies the tyres at no cost to the company, which is paid a subsidy for every ton processed.
The East London depot opened in June. Davidson said other Eastern Cape depots to open in the next two years were planned for Graaff-Reinet, Middelburg, Mthatha, Cradock, Port Alfred, Queenstown, Qunu and Butterworth.
With three of the country’s tyre manufacturers based in the Bay, Redisa had been criticised for its slow establishment of recycling services, particularly in Nelson Mandela Bay, although tyre manufacturers have been required by law to pay a levy to Redisa for waste tyre management services since last year.
This follows a court battle between Redisa and the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI) which ended up in the Supreme Court, which last year dismissed an appeal by the RMI for an interdict halting the implementation of Redisa’s waste tyre management plan.
At this stage Redisa-accredited transporters mostly still serve the region’s tyre dealers, although tyre manufacturers and vehicle manufacturers are also required to sign up as collection points.
All importers and manufacturers of tyres are required by law to pay R2.30 (plus VAT) on every kilogram of new tyre rubber produced.
Davidson said the fee was an “extended product responsibility management fee” whereby the cost of recycling the end-of-life product was billed to the producer.
In addition to opening depots across the province, Redisa also recently signed a research agreement with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) to establish a tyre testing centre at NMMU to determine an environmental rating for tyres based on quality.
Redisa ran newspaper advertisements in the past week for a “research project to determine the impact of the waste stream management model on the SA economy”.
Davidson said the purpose of the study was for the government to make informed decisions in formulating waste policy in the best interests of the public.
“Redisa is tendering to research institutions to conduct an independent investigation into the total economic impact of this new waste stream management model.
“Redisa believes its waste stream management model is beneficial to the nation as a whole.
“It is better to collect funds and apply them to addressing a waste problem early in the cycle, before the [tyres are] degraded, buried in landfills or illegally burnt.”
These methods created environmental and health problems that would be very expensive to deal with, he said.