Redisa honours its partners 

The Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (Redisa) held its first-ever awards evening last Friday, during which the Mathe Group received a Recognition Award for its contribution to recycling used tyres.

“Redisa has enabled us to focus on our core strength, which is the manufacturing of rubber crumb. Prior to being registered with the organisation, we had to source and collect tyres from various locations in KwaZulu-Natal. This was very costly and we were unable to secure a steady material supply of raw material.

“Since we started working with Redisa, this problem has been eliminated and we can concentrate on manufacturing as well as on developing new customers,” says Mehran Zarrebini, head of PFE International, a British investment company, which is part of a joint venture with the Mathe Group.

The Mathe Group, which was formed by Vusumuzi Mathe in 2010, currently operates from a small factory in New Germany. It began manufacturing small quantities of rubber granulate from used truck tyres in late 2011. Once it had secured a permit to manufacture at full capacity in 2013, it began ramping up production.

In July the group will move to new premises in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal. A multi-million rand investment by the joint venture partners has seen the construction of a completely new, automated 2 500 m² factory and a
1 000 m² warehouse. The new premises will have state-of-the-art equipment valued at R20 million.

Although there has been a steady increase in the production of rubber crumb since the first quarter of 2014, the company expects a substantial increase in capacity towards the end of this year as the new plant comes on stream.