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Minister for Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa has approved the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa’s (Redisa) Waste Tyre Management Plan for immediate implementation. The plan replaces the Redisa plan that was suspended in terms of an interdict granted on November 20 2012.
The legal challenge to the implementation of the Redisa plan, launched in August 2012, contained a long list of criticisms. The case was heard on the November 8 2012 with judgment delivered on November 20 2012.
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, then re-apply her mind to approving the plan with the insertion removed. This is what the minister has now done.
'REVIEW TAKES MONTHS'
Hermann Erdmann, Redisa CEO, commented “We are very pleased that the minister has taken such prompt action to resolve the chaos that the plan's suspension 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 .
“A review application takes months and for all that time the industry would have had to set aside provisional 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 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 each year which typically end up in landfills, the veld or illegally burned for their scrap steel content.
This is creating a growing health and environmental problem. The Redisa plan will establish a network 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 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.
The legal challenge to the implementation of the Redisa plan, launched in August 2012, contained a long list of criticisms. The case was heard on the November 8 2012 with judgment delivered on November 20 2012.
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, then re-apply her mind to approving the plan with the insertion removed. This is what the minister has now done.
'REVIEW TAKES MONTHS'
Hermann Erdmann, Redisa CEO, commented “We are very pleased that the minister has taken such prompt action to resolve the chaos that the plan's suspension 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 .
“A review application takes months and for all that time the industry would have had to set aside provisional 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 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 each year which typically end up in landfills, the veld or illegally burned for their scrap steel content.
This is creating a growing health and environmental problem. The Redisa plan will establish a network 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 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.