Ontario considers scrap tyre program

ERJ staff report (TB)

Toronto, Canada -- Ontario tyre manufacturers, importers and private brand owners will pay fees ranging from $2.03 to $365.53 per new tyre sold to fund scrap tyre abatement, management and recycling programs in the province, according to a draft Used Tyre Program Plan.

Prepared by Ontario Tyre Stewardship, an industry funding organisation created under Ontario's Waste Diversion Act, the draft proposal was delivered Dec. 12 to Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen. Gerretsen had directed Waste Diversion Ontario, the non-profit provincial corporation that creates and oversees the province's recycling programs, to submit a scrap tyre management proposal by Dec. 31.

The 113-page draft sets forth detailed recommendations on the tyre program's operations, activities and oversight. Fees would run $5.81 for each new passenger and light truck tyre sold in Ontario and $12 for each new medium truck tyres. Stewards of the program would be free to pass on those fees to customers.

Since repeal of an unpopular scrap tyre abatement fee in 1993, Ontario tyre dealers generally charged customers $2 to $5 each for the disposal of waste tyres. But Ontario tyre retailers and haulers played a major role in developing the new draft plan, just as tyre manufacturers, importers and recyclers did, according to Glenn Maidment, chairman of Ontario Tire Stewardship and president of the Rubber Association of Canada.

From Rubber & Plastics News (A Crain publication)