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More scrap tires in Ontario will be turned into new car parts, roof shingles and floor mats instead of being burned as fuel in factories under a provincial recycling program now being developed.
"Any tire that's put in a landfill site, any tire that's burned in the U.S. or anywhere else is an economic opportunity lost for Ontario," Environment Minister John Gerretsen said in an interview.
Yesterday, he gave Waste Diversion Ontario – the arm's-length agency that creates and operates recycling programs for the province – until the end of the year to come up with a program that ensures at least 90 per cent of all scrap tires are recycled, within five years.
But if the government doesn't allow haulers to take tires to facilities for use as fuel, stockpiles will build up at certain times of the year – like November, when motorists commonly change tires – warns Mike Moffatt, president of Ontario Tire Recovery, one of the province's largest tire haulers.
"There are times in the year when we don't have enough for Ontario (recyclers) and then there are times in the year when we have way too many," Moffatt said.
Gerretsen doesn't buy that.
"That's not what I'm hearing from the companies that are actually doing the recycling. What I've heard from them is that they could always use more product," he said.
Gerretsen also expects the program to expand recycling capacity by creating a green economy that will "develop and promote an Ontario-based market for recycling and recycled products that can be made from scrap tires."
It is estimated that only about half of the 10 to 12 million tires Ontarians throw away each year are recycled. Most of the rest are trucked to Quebec or the United States for use as fuel in cement factories. Some are also stockpiled or go to landfills.
Under the recycling program, the cost of collecting and recycling tires will be charged to the manufacturer or importer, Gerretsen said.
It's almost certain the fee will be passed on to consumers. But since it will replace unregulated and varying fees most tire shops already charge to dispose of tires, it may not mean more costs for consumers.
Recycling programs in other provinces have per-tire fees of $3 to $5. Most Toronto dealers charge between $2 and $5 per used tire when customers buy new ones.
The fees collected by the recycling program will go to an arm's-length agency – not to government coffers – to be used to collect scrap tires and promote recycling.
Given that Ontario already has an efficient, free-market tire collection system, the province is missing a chance to build on that by opting to set up a new program, said Usman Valiante, a consultant for the Ontario Tire Dealers Association.
"It's political expedient. It's what every other province does," he said.
Opposition helped scuttle a bid to implement a recycling program in 2005, but Gerretsen says that won't happen again.
"A lot of people are skeptical that this is just going to be another way that government is going to get money but I want to emphasize, not one penny will come to government," he said.
