Have you ever wondered what happens to your tires after you recycle them?
Tire recycling was on the table for discussion at county council recently in light of a staff recommendation to continue a new program that would see tire collectors dropping tires off directly at any County Waste Management facility.
“Where do our tires go after the county collects them?” asked Severn Township Mayor Mike Burkett.
“It’s a provincially mandated program so the province ensures they’re going to reuse alternatives, for the most part,” said Rob McCullough, director of solid waste management for the County of Simcoe.
“They’re going to deconstruction facilities where they’re chipped up. There’s some cutting-edge work where they’re sending tires through microwaves and reducing it to make carbon black, an oil that can be reused and scrap metal that can be pulled out of it. Types of mats... there’s a huge number of different alternatives. There’s also the background market where they can be chipped up and used as a fuel.”
In September 2009, the County of Simcoe registered its waste management facilities as tire collection sites under the Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS) program plan, created under the Waste Diversion Act (WDA). The program was put into place to offset the costs associated with managing tires in Ontario with the hopes of reduced illegal disposal of tires.
In August 2018, the County of Simcoe (along with the City of Barrie and Orillia) registered its waste management facilities as used tire collection locations under the new Used Tire Program.
“I would like to commend the county for continuing with this program,” said Oro-Medonte Mayor Harry Hughes. “Since we’ve been taking them at the county sites... we’re not seeing them along the roadway. In terms of cost, when people were dumping them along the roadway or in the forest, we were incurring a substantial cost collecting them. From an economics and environmental point of view, it’s a good program to continue.”
In 2018, the County of Simcoe saw about 29,000 tires come through its waste management facilities for recycling.
Springwater Mayor Don Allen asked about costs.
“There is not a solid cost attached to this item because staff are already at the site, they’re already doing this work,” said Debbie Korolnek, manager of engineering, planning and environment for the County of Simcoe. “Where there is a potential cost, I suppose, is it could take work away in the future as demand for the service grows. We will be losing the revenue, but that’s lost in any event.”
“It’s the beginning of a whole new world of waste diversion,” said Innisfil Mayor and committee chair Lynn Dollin.
The recommendation was carried.
