A stockpile of tires in the County of Wellington is pictured in this file photo from last summer. County of Wellington
By Patty Winsa Business Reporter
The Ontario government is raising the recycling target for tires after more than a year of chaos in the industry caused by an earlier provincial decision to reduce the level.
The new target requires tire producers to recycle, reuse or retread 80 per cent, by weight, of the tires they sell in the province, up from 65 per cent, one of a series of amendments to the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act of 2016 announced by the province on Monday.
The Ontario Tire Dealers Association, which has been advocating for the increase, said it is reviewing the amendments, but that the changes by the environment ministry look positive “at a high level.”
The new target should kick-start a once-robust tire recycling industry that was hit hard when the government lowered the recycling target at the beginning of 2025. The reduction meant hundreds of garages and tire dealers couldn't get their used tires picked up because the producer responsibility organizations (PROs) that handle recycling for tire companies didn't need them to meet the lowered target.
Tire haulers were put out of work, or had to lay off staff. And processing facilities that recycle used tires into crumb operated at reduced capacity despite the fact that consumers bankroll the industry through the eco-fees they pay on new tires.
Adam Moffatt, CEO of the tire dealers association, warned that the province’s recycling capacity cannot be restored overnight and that the PROs that manage recycling for tire companies also need time to assess the new requirements and implement their collection plans.
“The question now is how quickly those plans can be put into action and how quickly the collection and processing system can respond, particularly as we enter one of the busiest times of the year for Ontario’s tire dealers,” said Moffatt.
The province’s amendments also include a requirement that PROs collect from more sites, as in garages and tire dealers, from 4,300 to 6,500 beginning in 2027.
Both the increase in the recycling target and the number of collection sites weren’t in the original amendments put out by the government earlier this year for public consultation in response to the slowdown in the industry.
Instead, the province was looking at ways to implement timelines that would encourage PROs to pick up tires more quickly.
But the environment ministry determined that a higher recycling target, and an increase in collection sites, “would be the most direct way to address backlogs and improve the reliability of tire collection services in Ontario,” said the ministry in an email.
The final amendments could be a surprise for many in the industry, including PROs, who now have to budget to meet a higher recycling target more than halfway through the year.
eTracks, the largest PRO in the province, said it was too early to comment.
The company said that it is “reviewing the changes and assessing impact on the broader tire recycling system in Ontario, as well as what it means for our producer customers, collection site partners and operations.
“We continue to operate our provincewide collection network and work with service partners to keep tires moving,” said Christopher Balestri, the company’s marketing and communications lead, in an email.
During the chaos caused by the reduced target, the environment ministry repeatedly told the media that it expected PROs to continue to pick up tires in a timely manner, an expectation that the ministry continues to repeat.
Yet, hundreds of thousands of tires were stockpiled at sites in Sudbury and Ottawa, which critics warned was a potential environmental catastrophe, but no PRO or hauler was ever publicly blamed for the problem.
“Our expectation remains that producers and producer responsibility organizations collect and manage all end-of-life tires as they become available, regardless of targets,” said the ministry on Tuesday.
Patty Winsa is a Toronto-based business reporter for the Star. Reach her via email: pwinsa@thestar.ca.
