Pretoria: The Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa and Environmental Affairs Director General Nosipho Ngcaba will oppose an application by the South African Tyre Recycling Process Company NPC (SATRP) and Bridgestone South Africa (Pty) Ltd, said the department on Tuesday.

In a statement, it said the minister, the director general and the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa NPC (REDISA) had been served with a notice of motion on 30 August by the SATRP and Bridgestone.

They are seeking an urgent interdict and a declaratory order to the effect that they should not be compelled to subscribe to the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa’s (REDISA) Integrated Industry Waste Tyre Management Plan (IIWTMP) pending the minister’s approval or otherwise of the IIWTMP submitted by SATRP.

The REDISA plan was recently approved by the minister in terms of Regulation 11(4) of the Waste Tyre Regulations, 2009 published in Gazette No 35534 of 23 July 2012 for immediate implementation.

The matter will be heard in the North Gauteng High Court on next Tuesday.

The department said last month that the REDISA plan was centred on the objective of managing waste tyres in a manner that minimises their negative impacts on the environment and human well-being.

“The intention is to ensure that the management of waste tyres follows the waste hierarchy which advocates for avoidance of waste, re-use, recycling and recovery of energy and disposal as the last option. This will in turn curb the well-known impacts of waste tyre stockpiles such as human health risks associated with mosquito and vermin breeding as well as air pollution impacts from burning of tyres and fire hazards,” the department said at the time.