“In 2012, when the government approved our tyre strategy, REDISA managed to get on top of South Africa’s tyres. The country was seen as a leader in space. Now things look vastly different,’ says Stacey Jansen, director of REDISA.

During their stint, REDISA managed 250 000 tyres a year, and at the end of 2017, they had a 20 000 tonne backlog, something Jansen says,” was manageable.”

Now, South Africa has an estimated 900 000 tonne backlog of tyres, a stark increase and a shocking statistic showing how tyres become a problem if left unchecked.

REDISA’s process actively involved the informal elements of the waste industry, Jansen explains, “A substantial portion of the waste sector is informal. Instead of hiding from this, we envisioned mobilising this force and paying waste pickers directly to collect tyres. These tyres would then be taken to collection centres and then moved to a recycling centre when applicable. This caused irritation in the tyre industry because they did not have control of the tyres, and ultimately this led to REDISA’s non-profit status being withdrawn and the entity liquidated.”

This was the catalyst for South Africa’s tyre collection programme to crumble.

In the interim

Since 2017 until now, South Africa has not implemented a plan to deal with its waste tyres. In 2024, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) approved its Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan (IWTMP), but the plan was not implemented, and, in REDISA’s view, “Completely backwards and unworkable.” Since then, REDISA approached the Pretoria High Court to review and set aside the IWTMP.

REDISA has gone on record stating that this plan is a severe step backwards. Jansen explains, “When you have a governing document like the IWTMP, it should be clear to every stakeholder and have actionable goals and mechanisms. This plan does not. Any plan that uses words like ‘should’ or ‘maybe’ is not strong and lacks accountability.”

Jansen says that the plan is unworkable due to:

• No accountability: The plan had overlapping actions where it was not clear who was responsible for what. This leads to a plan where people either do not know their role, overstep their role, or avoid their role without accountability because the plan did not specify it.
• No budget: The plan’s budget was non-existent. While the plan had numbers, none of these were attached to funding or mechanisms to activate this funding.
• Bad data: The IWTMP lacked cohesive data to back its claims and, in some cases, used incorrect data.
• No legislation: While the plan would fall under the National Waste Act, the plan did not cite any laws or regulations and provided no update to the existing policy in a way that acted on the plan’s goals.
• No reporting procedure: The plan mentions reporting, but the time frames suggested were either impossible or vague.

Jansen adds, “We did not file in court to be obtuse; we genuinely saw that this plan was not workable and wanted to intervene. The plan was approved in 2024, but there has been zero movement on it since. What we can see is that since 2017, the government has spent about R5 billion on tyre management in the face of no plan. When REDISA was managing tyres, we built R2.5 billion worth of infrastructure, and today it is all gone, and the tyres are in landfills and piling up.”

The present

In June 2025, the DFFE withdrew the IWTMP, and plans to reassess it to ensure that the plan aligns with the department’s sustainability goals and governance.

Jansen says, “Of course, REDISA welcomes this decision; finally, sanity prevails! We can only hope the DFFE goes forward with a better plan, more in line with REDISA’s original plan, so that South Africa can actually deal with waste.

The future of tyre recycling in South Africa

Looking ahead, Jansen says, “research shows that valorising the 38 different waste streams in SA through recycling, could grow the economy by 1.75%. This growth would be underpinned by small and medium enterprises, which have the most potential to create employment.”

For South Africa to move forward, productively, REDISA suggest implementing the following actions:

• Provide financial incentives for tyre recycling.
• A real, actionable plan that clearly states who is responsible for what, with budget and reporting mechanisms.
• Understand that the waste sector relies on the informal economy as well as smaller enterprises.
• Increased accountability.

Jansen adds, “Waste should never be a noun. Between 2013 and 2017, South Africa had a working system for dealing with tyres. If recycling tyres were easy, it would already be done. We need to find a way to understand the market and move the water up the value chain. This must be done with financial incentives to get the system moving and improve supply and manage demand. We were once leaders in this practice, and with a working plan, we can be again.”

South Africa’s tyre problem is currently in limbo, the IWTMP has been withdrawn, and the government is still managing tyres out of pocket. The decision to withdraw the ‘unworkable’ plan suggests a step in the right direction, but while plans are looked at and finalised, the 900 00 tonne backlog is still taking up space in landfills. These tyres represent a failure and an opportunity for South Africa to get behind its sustainability objectives.