News Release

For immediate release
April 9, 2009

RECYCLING ONTARIO’S USED TIRES
McGuinty Government Approves Used Tire Recycling Program

NEWS

Ontario has a new, industry-funded program to deal with the more than 12 million used tires generated each year.

The program, to be delivered by Ontario Tire Stewardship beginning this fall, will:

• See 91 per cent of used car and truck tires recycled into higher end uses in year one
• Clean up the nearly three million used tires stockpiled across the province 
• Include the recycling of large industrial and off-road tires, which are currently not collected or recycled.
• Include funding for public education programs and research into greener ways to recycle tires.

Currently, only about half of the car and truck tires are recycled.

Fees to pay for the recycling program will be collected by Ontario Tire Stewardship from brand owners, importers and vehicle manufacturers. No fees go to the government.

QUOTES

“This program will ensure that tires get recycled in Ontario. In the past, far too many tires ended up buried in landfills, burned for fuel or stockpiled. An added bonus is that the program will encourage the development of green technologies right here in Ontario, creating jobs as part of Ontario’s new and emerging green economy.” -  John Gerretsen, Minister of the Environment

“We are pleased with the Minister’s decision to approve the Used Tire Program Plan. This plan makes the brand owners and first importers of tires responsible for managing used tires in the Province of Ontario. In approving the plan, the Minister facilitates significant investment in Ontario businesses handling used tires in environmentally-beneficial ways, creating jobs and a green economy for future generations of Ontarians.” – Glenn Maidment, President of the Ontario Tire Stewardship Board

QUICK FACTS

• Ontario’s program is the first of its kind in Canada as it is based on Extended Producer Responsibility, a cornerstone of all of Ontario’s recycling programs, which include the Blue Box, household hazardous waste and waste electronics programs.
• Used tires can be recycled into a variety of products including playground equipment and surfaces, athletic field turf and running tracks, rubber flooring products, surfacing for walking trails, interlocking patio bricks, roofing shingles, parking curbs and speed bumps, livestock feeders and troughs, landscape mulch, belts and guitar straps, parts for new vehicles and rubberized asphalt to pave streets and highways.
• Stockpiled tires are a serious fire hazard and can be breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
• Manufacturers, brand owners and importers will pay an estimated $74 million in the first year to run the program. They will pay Ontario Tire Stewardship a fee based on each tire they put into the market. The fee is currently set at $5.84 for a passenger vehicle tire. Fees vary for larger tires.
  

LEARN MORE

• For more details about the program, see Ontario Tire Stewardship’s backgrounder and tire program at www.ontariotirestewardship.org
• Learn more about tire recycling across Canada.
• Minister’s program approval letter

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Contacts:	Contact information for the general public:
John Karapita, Minister’s Office, 416-314-6736 Kate Jordan, Ministry of the Environment, 416-314-6666	416-325-4000 or 1-800-565-4923/ www.ontario.ca/environment

 

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