The Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan (TSS) has announced changes in their manufacturing process in the province, as the result of an expired contract with Shercom Industries Inc. in Saskatoon.
Going forward, the TSS has announced a new approach: one single facility in Saskatoon will now be superseded by two processor facilities in the province, one in the north and one in the south.
The southern processor is located in Moose Jaw and the local scope is the southern half of the province. “We’ve… just slightly tweaked the zone boundaries,” CEO Stevyn Arnt explains. This is “in order to reduce costs both from a transportation standpoint... but also to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” He further explains: “now you're not hauling tires from, say, Weyburn all the way up to Saskatoon.”
The Moose Jaw Crumb Rubber Manufacturing (CRM) facility is slated to produce two key products: rubber modified asphalt and synthetic rubber for athletic fields. We are more familiar with their products than we may be aware: “at Mosaic stadium, the turf that is used by the Riders… that material originated from crumb rubber manufacturers,” Arnt remarks.
Moose Javians can expect a long-term involvement in the community, although no exact contract terms are confirmed at this time. “I'll just say it's a multi-year contract,” Arnt says.
The new TSS strategy is on task to help the province meet its climate change target in a multi-faceted approach. In addition to a second facility, requests for proposals with the new facilities are exploring emergent technologies with a greater chance of displacing carbon through output. Arnt affirms: “we know that if you displace more carbon-intensive activities, then you’ll reduce the total overall impact of our program on the environment.”
So far, the TSS is responsible for cleaning up legacy tires at a large Assiniboia site in 2021, and in the RM of Eldon alone 2500 tonnes of old tires were cleaned up. The RM of Mervin and surrounding communities were also included last year.
If you’ve ever wondered where the environmental levy on new tires goes, this program is the answer. “All our revenue for the tire stewardship is paid for by the environmental levy… when a new tire is purchased.” “That is the only level of funding we have. We use these funds to pay for both the collection of the tire and the processing of that tire” in order “to make it into a more environmentally friendly product at the end of the day,” Arnt explains.
Additional future revenue is slated to come from the return to retailer (RTR) program. “It's not the number of facilities,” Arnt clarifies. “It's the number of retailers that we've actually added to our return to retailer mix.” The RTR program both raises needed funds and contributes to climate goals by helping people responsibly recycle their tires. “And we’ve just added our 114th retailer to the mix last week.”
These revenue streams with savings from more efficient emergent technologies provide the organization new opportunities without passing on additional costs to consumers. “These increased funds allow us to go find more legacy tires that may be laying around the province,” says Arnt.
Since its inception in 2017, the TSS grew tire recycling rates across the province from 70% “and this year we’re about 79%, for 2022,” confirms Arnt. “So, we're trending in the right direction, but we know we've got more work to do.”
“We look forward to increasing the number of tires that we recycle and ensure we're doing things in a more environmentally responsible manner,” Arnt concludes.
Look for the Moose Jaw facility located at the old Lynco building on High St. to open in May of this year, although no exact date can be confirmed at this time.
