Tire Recycling Alberta recently held a symposium with the goal of a “second life” for OTR rubber. As successful as Alberta’s tire recycling program is, it doesn’t capture everything: off-the-road (OTR) tires currently bypass the system. Their inclusion was the focus of the Alberta Recycling Management Authority’s one-day OTR Symposium, held in Calgary in March.

“Alberta is going through a huge economic boom and the construction industry is going gangbusters,” says Brad Schultz, Director of Tire Recycling Alberta (TRA). “We’re struggling with the proper disposal of off-road tires.”

Since 1992, Alberta has levied a $4 fee on every new tire sold, but only for licensed vehicles. There’s no levy on unlicensed vehicles such as tractors, backhoes, loaders and the huge haulers that work the oil fields, and currently, there’s no system in place to recycle their tires. Size and construction are a problem.

“The money is funneled through our organization from tire and automotive dealers, and we administrate that money in support programs back to the tire recyclers,” says Dennis Irving, Chairman of TRA’s Industry Council. “We have formal incentive programs with the recyclers that cover transportation of scrap tires, taking product to shred and crumb, and then finished products like bricks. The smaller tires are not that difficult to handle.

“It’s the size of the OTR tires that’s the problem, and there are different construction issues. We’re looking at everything from farm tires to the huge 14-foot hauler tires that we use up in Fort McMurray.”

The symposium organizers expected 50 attendees, but 75 people ultimately showed up, covering all aspects of the tire’s life, including manufacturers, the transportation sector, dealers and users.

“The event was an absolute success,” Irving says. “Our first objective for the session was to gather all the people involved in OTR together in the same room, and we accomplished that. Then, we wanted to get the message across that we have a problem on our hands and we should look for a made-in-Canada solution, not just for Alberta. The third objective was to go away with a direction. By our October session, when all the tire directors get together, we’ll try to have recommendations to put on the table.”

Alberta generates about 3.4 million tires per year. They pass through two recyclers, one of whom handles under 19-inch, the other over that size. The $4 levy is allocated based on the work performed, including collecting, sorting and recycling. Many tires end up as remanufactured products.

“A lot of products are for the oil field industry,” Schultz says. “There’s a problem with accessing sites because of soil conditions, so they’ve developed rig matting that’s made of tire crumb. They’re 15 feet long and ten feet wide, and they lay these down in series and you drive the equipment on them. Each mat consists of approximately 600 tires, and the producer is receiving orders of 1,000 at a time.”

Irving also believes in looking at numerous solutions. “We had one man at the symposium who takes the big hauler tires and cuts them, and turns them into cattle troughs,” he says. “There may be two or three solutions when we’re done, and that was why we wanted everybody together in the same room and trade stories about the problem. Maybe it’s a pipe dream, but we’re looking for a solution that’ll work in New Brunswick and British Columbia as well as Alberta. We want solutions that will work for everybody.”