Following the Deputy Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Bernice Swarts' recent visit to the Rustenburg Waste Tyre Depot in Tlhabane, the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA) has called South Africa's tyre waste management a "ticking time bomb" and is urging the government to take urgent action on the country’s tyre waste "crisis".
"The Rustenburg Waste Tyre Depot is not representative of the dire state of depots across the country," said Stacey Jansen, a director at REDISA.
Governance failures
The initiative is asking the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) to address what it has deemed serious governance failures that have turned South Africa’s waste tyre depots into public health and environmental ticking time bombs.
Jansen also added: "Perhaps the deputy minister should rather have visited the site of the disastrous Biesiesvlei depot in Lichtenburg, also in the North West.
“In 2023, the depot went up in flames, causing massive environmental damage.
“Despite the dire warning of Lichtenburg, the North West and all other provinces remain threatened by dangerously overburdened depots.
“Burning tyres causes some of the most severe air pollution possible."
Storage, not recycling
Dr Chris Corzier, an executive committee member of REDISA, claims the government is too concerned with waste tyre storage and not recycling.
“The depots are so full that recently the DFFE put out tenders for another 32 waste tyre depots, totalling a million square metres.
“The latest DFFE Annual Report also shows they underspent on the transport budget because they don't have storage space for the tyres.
“The DFEE has also just gone to tender to auction off some R100mworth of equipment that was 'intended' to be used for pre-processing tyres and 'intended' to generate revenue for the Waste Bureau, but is not being used.
“This is bluntly an admission of failure: they can’t deal with the tyres, and spent tens of millions on equipment that they can’t put to use."
Economics of tyre waste
According to REDISA, South Africa produces at least 70,000 waste tyres every single day.
Moreover, it states that reports it has received indicate that depots are not following all needed safety protocols, and that trucks are being turned away from overfull depots, leading to illegal dumping next to roads and in riverbeds.
The initiative says that eight years ago, South Africa was a world leader in waste tyre management.
According to the initiative, the country’s established system was a proof-of-concept for applying circular solutions to diverse waste streams.
REDISA believes that the country’s current tyre recycling system has also led to economic exclusion, as it claims the Waste Management Bureau does not employ small business entrepreneurs and micro-collectors.
