Newfoundland Considers Partnership to Address Scrap Tire Problem

The Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador has developed a plan to recycle the area’s stockpiled used tires.

According to a report by CBC News, the province’s depots have accumulated more than 1 million tires, and previous attempts at a solution have failed.

“We’re having our third kick at the cat here,” Environmental Minister Clyde Jackman told CBC News. “We think this time around…we have a solution here.”

According to the report, FGA Group has signed an agreement-in-principle with Newfoundland and Labrador to make recycled products from tires stored at the Placentia and Bull Arm tire depots. The company has until October to finalize the details of the deal.

Jackman told reporters that if talks with FGA should fail, the province will recycle the tires on its own at a location to be determined, according to the CBC News report.

The province has planned to spend $800,000 to ship a stockpile of partially shredded tires in the city of Stephenville to a plant near Quebec City for further processing. Because these tires are partially shredded, they cannot be included under the proposal from FGA Group, Jackman said at a press conference.

The province’s earlier attempts at addressing its scrap tire problem were unsuccessful. According to the CBC Report, Newfoundland Envirotire Shreds exited a tire recycling program in 2004, and Municipal Recyclers of Mount Pearl, Newfoundland, withdrew from a government-sponsored tire recycling program in 2002.  In 2005, Corner Brook Pulp and Paper discarded a proposal to burn the tires for energy at its plant.