Ontario Environment Minister approves used tire plan

John Gerretsen, Ontario’s environment minister, announced the approval of the Ontario Used Tire Program Plan, launching the most ambitious used tire stewardship program in the country.

The plan will implement a managed scrap tire solution for tires from the Ontario market, diverting these tires away from burning and landfilling to 3R’s processing. The tires will be reused and recycled into tire derived products (TDPs) such as under-the-hood automotive products, flooring, sports fields, play ground surfaces and construction-related equipment and materials.

The program is funded by brand owners and first importers of tires supplied to the Ontario market, including tire manufacturers, retailers and vehicle manufacturers who remit a tire stewardship fee (TSF) to OTS for each tire. These fees will be used by OTS to operate the used tire program, including the collection, transporting and processing costs of used tires, including those in stockpiles.

The program will manage all 12 million tires sold in Ontario annually, and will track the tires from collection at over 10,000 points across the province to their sale as tire-derived products, and includes an aggressive three year plan to eliminate approximately 2.8 million stockpiled tires in 90 sites across Ontario.

In the first year the program will inject over $22 million into the Ontario-based scrap tire processing industry, supporting Ontario-based processors as they invest in their businesses to increase capacity, adopt new scrap tire processing technologies, and create new “green” jobs in the Province.

OTS will implement the used tire program on September 1, 2009.