20 November 2008
Recycler Profile
Alberta’s Ace Recycling Program
Alberta runs a very successful tire recycling program that could easily serve as a template by other provinces looking for ways to deal with used tire issues.
With pollution, global warming and other environmental issues on everyone’s radar, Brad Schultz enjoys the type of job security we all wish we could have. As the director of Recycling Programs for Alberta Recycling Management Authority, Schultz runs three important programs—Electronics Waste, the Paint Program, and the Scrap Tire Recycling Program.
The job security part comes from the fact that Schultz is very good at what he does. For starters, the Tire Recycling program alone enjoys a 100% success rate and could be used as a template by other government bodies looking for a way to deal with used tire problems.
Alberta’s Tire Recycling program follows a very simple formula. “At the retail level, when consumers purchase a tire, they’re charged a $4 disposal/recycling fee that applies to any licensed vehicle,” Schultz says. “It is the retailer’s responsibility to collect and remit the fee to our office.”
Part of the $4 fee covers the cost of picking up all the tires from retailers across the province. “Program-registered tire processors go to the retailers to pick up the tires,” Schultz says. “Retailers call the processors for a pick-up when their used tire bins are full.”
A grant project in Alberta that used a
pour-in-place product for the playground
surface. The product incorporates crumb
produced by recyclers.
Shred, crumb and manufacture
Once picked up, the tires face one of three fates: shredding, crumbing, or manufacturing. Shredding converts the tires into 4-inch chunks that are used for civil engineering application such as road building and drainage systems. “The bulk of the material is used for leachate collection at the bottom of landfill sites,” Schultz says. “It’s being used as a base drainage system in place of gravel simply because aggregate is more expensive.”
Some tires are turned into crumb—fine quarter-inch particles. “There’s a huge market in the crumb business,” Schultz says. In some cases, crumb is mixed with asphalt and used for resurfacing roads.
One of the benefits of mixing crumb with asphalt is a much quieter road surface. “The spin off result we’re seeing is that on major freeways, collectors or arterials where sound barrier walls are erected, designers can now reduce the height of those walls, thereby saving on costs,” Schultz says.
Old tires are also used in the manufacture of a variety of products. “There are companies in Alberta that turn used tires into mats for hockey rinks, fitness centres, and running tracks,” Schultz says. “These tires are also used to make rig matting—huge mats (about 7 feet by 12 feet) used in the oil industry in Alberta.”
Impressive numbers
Alberta has 2,200 registered tire dealers collecting used tires, as well as the disposal fee. Annually, the Tire Waste program brings in 5 million tires.
“All the tires are recycled and there are no stock piles in the province of Alberta,” Schultz says. “The Alberta Recycling Management Authority Board has also taken the position that we will not burn tires in order to generate fuel, simply because currently there’s a huge market for manufactured products and civil engineering applications, and the crumb market is doing very well. Tire Derived Fuel is presently being looked at and it may be an option down the road if we come to the point where there are too many scrap tires and not enough applications for their use.” | 
