Tire Piles and Policy Gaps: Why Ontario's New Recycling Targets May Not Be Enough
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
The province is raising recycling quotas to clear massive backlogs of discarded tires, but repair shop owners and industry advocates warn that success depends entirely on the execution by for-profit contractors.
### The Backlog Crisis
As CityNews Toronto first reported, vehicle repair shop owners across Ontario are facing a crisis of towering discarded tire stockpiles. These piles grew after the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority (RPRA)—the government-mandated oversight body—implemented relaxed rules in January 2025, reducing both collection targets and the number of designated collection sites.
Adam Moffatt of the Ontario Tire Dealers Association told CityNews Toronto that this shift led to two massive stockpiles in Stittsville and just outside of Sudbury, holding between 300,000 and 500,000 tires by the end of last year, with hundreds of thousands more backlogged province-wide.
### A Regulatory Course Correction
To address the burden, the RPRA is increasing weight-based recycling targets from 65 per cent to 80 per cent, effective this year. By 2027, the authority plans to increase the number of required collection sites and raise penalties for the companies responsible for tire pickup if targets are missed.
However, industry skepticism remains. Adam Moffatt noted that success depends on the Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs)—the for-profit companies contracted for pickup. Moffatt stated it is too early to know if the rules will be sufficient, as the industry awaits the PROs' specific implementation strategies.
### The 'Crunch Time' Pressure
For John Rouvas, owner of Optimum Auto Inc. on Kingston Road, the true test arrives by year-end. Autumn is the peak period for tire replacements, and Rouvas described this as "crunch time," noting that last year the piles became too large to manage because there was nowhere to put them.
### Opinion: Rearranging the Deck Chairs
*Opinion: From my perspective as a local environment columnist, these updated targets are a necessary admission of failure, but they risk being a superficial fix. Increasing a target from 65 to 80 per cent is a mathematical victory, but it does not automatically create the physical infrastructure needed to move half a million tires out of Stittsville and Sudbury. Until the province moves away from a reliance on for-profit PROs who have already demonstrated a failure to meet basic collection needs, we are essentially rearranging the deck chairs on a landfill crisis.*