Quebec cleans up final scrap tyre stockpiles in province

ERJ staff report (TB)

Tire Business staff report

Franklin, Quebec -- The last of roughly 45.5 million stockpiled scrap tyres 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 tyres were removed from the stockpile in Franklin, 20 July, which once contained more than 22 million tyres, the officials said.

“Emptying the Franklin site is an important, symbolic and progressive step in the management of scrap tyres,” Pierre Arcand, minister of Durable Development, Environment and Parks, said at a press conference in Franklin marking the achievement.

Since 2011, 12 major scrap tyre 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 tyres generated in the province every year, Recyc-Quebec said. In 2001, the agency launched a separate program to clean up Quebec's scrap tyre stockpiles.

In all, more than 151 million car, van and truck tyres 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 tyres. The province has collected a $3 per tyre environmental tax on new tyres since 1999 to fund a collection and recycling programme.

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 11000 collection points are available in Québec for the recovery and recycling of scrap tyres.

Recyc-Quebec is the designated organisation for coordinating recovery activities under Quebec's Residual Materials Management Policy.

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