File: Waste & Recycling News
The province of Quebec announced it has
cleaned up all of its 45.5 million scrap tires through
recycling. The last of roughly 45.5 million stockpiled scrap tires in Quebec have been removed and recycled with the cleanup of the province's last remaining stockpile, according to provincial and municipal officials.
The last scrap tires were removed from the stockpile in Franklin July 20, which once contained more than 22 million tires, the officials said.
"Emptying the Franklin site is an important, symbolic and progressive step in the management of scrap tires," Pierre Arcand, minister of Durable Development, Enrivornment and Parks, said at a press conference in Franklin marking the achievement.
Since 2011, 12 major scrap tire sites and nearly 800 smaller ones have been cleaned up in Quebec, he said.
The provincial government empowered Recyc-Quebec in 1996 with managing Quebec's first integrated program to reclaim and recycle all scrap tires generated in the province every year, Recyc-Quebec said. In 2001, the agency launched a separate program to clean up Quebec's scrap tire stockpiles.
In all, more than 151 million car, van and truck tires have been recovered and processed in Quebec since 1990, the agency said, including the 45.5 million recovered from scrap piles.
Recyc-Quebec did not disclose how much was spent over the years to recover the stockpiled scrap tires. The province has collected a $3 per tire environmental tax on new tires since 1999 to fund a collection and recycling program.
The recycling industry in Quebec employs more than 500 and generates almost $40 million in business annually, according to Stéphane Billette, member of the Canadian Parliament representing Huntingdon, Quebec. Approximately 11,000 collection points are available in Québec for the recovery and recycling of scrap tires.
"Québec is by far Canada's best performing province, both technically and economically, in the area of scrap tire management," Mr. Arcand said.
Responsibility for managing scrap tires soon will be transferred to industry in accordance with the principle of "extended producer responsibility" (EPR), which is applied to various products that could have negative effects on the environment, Recyc-Quebec said.
The EPR approach already is being applied to electronic devices, batteries, mercury lamps, antifreeze and brake cleaners as well as paints and oils.
Recyc-Quebec is the designated organization for coordinating recovery activities under Quebec's Residual Materials Management Policy.
Also present at the Franklin event were Billette, Ginette Bureau, president and CEO of Recyc-Quebec, and and Suzanne Yelle-Blair, mayor of Franklin, where one of the province's largest stockpiles — 20 million tires — was located.
Tire Business is a sister publication of Waste & Recycling News.
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