REDISA presents Recognition Award to Mathe Group

Dr. Mehran Zarrebini is pictured at the REDISA Awards Ceremony with the Minister of Water & Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa. Representing The Mathe Group, Dr Zarrebini received a recognition award from the Recycling and Economic Development Initiative of South Africa (REDISA) to mark its contribution towards recycling used tyres that are becoming a major environmental hazard in South Africa.

Dr Mehran Zarrebini, head of British investment group PFE International which is part of a joint venture with the Mathe Group and also owns Van Dyck Carpets, recently received the award in Johannesburg. He said that this was a completely unexpected and much valued acknowledgement of the work that the Mathe Group and its dedicated employees had done to establish a sustainable business.

REDISA was created in 2012 as an independent body to oversee and facilitate the recycling of the more than 60 million used tyres that have built up in South Africa over the years.

It supports and promotes tyre recycling, providing the collection and depot infrastructure required to collect waste tyres from across the entire country and deliver them to approved recyclers. This is funded via a waste management fee on new rubber charged to manufacturers and importers.

Core strength

Dr Zarrebini said that the Mathe Group had been working with REDISA since September 2014. "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 raw material supply. Since we started working with REDISA, this problem has been eliminated and we can concentrate on manufacturing as well as on developing new and existing customers," he said.

The award would be displayed at the new premises that the group plans to open in Hammarsdale in KwaZulu-Natal in July. A multi-million rand investment by the joint venture partners has seen the construction of a new 2,500m² factory and a 1,000m² warehouse. It will be fitted out with R20m worth of state-of-the-art equipment.

The Mathe Group 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.