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REDISA - Illegal tyre dumping and burning an enviromental and health disaster

Aug 14, 2025 Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA), Dr Chris Crozier, illegal waste tyre dumping and burning


REDISA - Illegal tyre dumping and burning an enviromental and health disaster

 

The Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA) is receiving increasing reports of illegal waste tyre dumping and burning across South Africa. Apart from the severe toxic pollution caused by these practices, they are proof of how disastrously waste tyres are mismanaged in South Africa. REDISA has written to members of the Portfolio Committee for Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, asking them for urgent action on a new waste tyre management plan to help avert a full blown environmental and health crisis

 

"A staggering number of waste tyres are produced in our country, equivalent to some 70,000 passenger tyres daily" said Dr Chris Crozier, from REDISA. "Due to the absence of oversight and management, unregulated operators are seriously undermining environmental compliance and public health. Toxins from waste tyres leach into the groundwater, contaminating it. Tyre burning releases toxic pollutants which are linked to cancer, respiratory illnesses and birth defects," he explained.

 

Areas in and around informal settlements and neighbourhoods on the urban fringe have become wastelands filled with these toxic tyres. Collectors cannot move them, as they have not been employed by the Waste Management Bureau, which falls under the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. A number of collectors say they have not worked this year and are increasingly unable to feed their families.

 

Dangerously overfull waste tyre depots are a major cause of the problem. Certain types of waste tyres are also burnt to access scrap metal. Furthermore, some communities are desperately burning waste tyres at nighttime for warmth during winter. This has devastating health consequences.

 

The situation is more than a governance failure: it is a missed opportunity for economic growth and job creation through recycling. Research has shown that if there were a functional waste management plan in place applied to just 13 of South Africa’s 38 waste streams, our GDP growth could rise by 1.5 percentage points. From 2013 to 2017, REDISA ran a nationally integrated tyre management plan. It collected and diverted over 306 000 tonnes of waste tyres, created 3 000 jobs, and offset 59 000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions. It was fully funded by a producer-paid levy. The levy is still collected by the government for the management of waste tyres, yet now it delivers no comparable impact, not least because more than half of the money collected is diverted to other purposes.

 

Small business entrepreneurs in the waste economy are speaking up but want to remain anonymous. They fear being identified will result in not receiving contracts from the government in the future. A transporter who was part of a family business built under the REDISA model said: “Trucks are being turned away at the depots. There are secret dumping sites. Tyres are also being dumped in sports fields.”

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