Auto shops across Ontario are being buried under mountains of used tires that recyclers will no longer come to collect, a mounting problem that industry experts trace back to a change in the province's tire recycling rules. What was once a routine pickup has turned into a headache for small businesses left holding stacks of rubber they cannot legally keep or easily get rid of.
At one auto shop in Scarborough, roughly a thousand tires have been piling up with no clear way to move them. The owner says the space is running out and the situation has become untenable, describing a growing hazard on the property. Beyond the clutter, the piles bring the risk of fire, attract pests and give off a strong smell of urine, turning the yard into a health and safety concern.
Shop owners say the collection service they once relied on has all but vanished. One recalled that trucks used to come and pick up the tires twice a month and haul them away right away, but that over roughly the last seven months the pickups stopped and he does not know what happened. The reliable rhythm of removal that kept shops clear has broken down across the sector.
Industry experts point to a change in Ontario's tire recycling rules as the root of the problem. The services that manage tire recycling have been recovering far fewer tires since collection targets were lowered from 85 percent to 65 percent last year, and the drop-off in collections and recycling became especially clear toward the end of last year, in December, when tire dealers found themselves sitting on hundreds of tires.
The shift traces back to an earlier imbalance in the system. A few years ago, tire recyclers were reporting that they were struggling to meet their quotas because not enough tires were coming in, which helped set the stage for the lowered targets. That change, meant to ease pressure on recyclers, has now left the dealers at the other end of the chain stuck with the surplus.
Faced with the pileup, shop owners have scrambled for private solutions. One said he called five or six companies that all told him they no longer pick up tires, and only found a hauler after a friend passed along a phone number for someone who charges to take them away, at around three or four dollars a tire. He paid it simply to clear the tires, saying he had no other choice.
The stakes are high because the alternative is a fine. Dealers say the city will penalize them, with warnings of roughly 4,000 dollar fines if they do not dispose of the tires, even though they insist the backlog is out of their control. The province says it has recently held consultations with industry leaders and is considering feedback on proposed regulation changes, though shop owners say they would prefer to see action sooner rather than later.