Statement from the Registrar: Used Tires Collection System

Published on: Apr 6, 2023 Go back to the Latest News Archive

In the Spring of 2022, RPRA informed the tire producer responsibility organizations (PROs) registered with RPRA to provide services to tire producers in fulfilling their collection and management obligations under O. Reg. 225/18 (Tires Regulation) that their single shared public collection system had shortfalls in the required number of sites in various communities.

RPRA required these shortfalls in the system to be addressed or for each PRO to submit a compliant system on behalf of their producers.

Following this request, RPRA was made aware that there was no longer an agreement to share the system.

By October 2022, the five PROs submitted four separate collection systems to RPRA. These systems were examined to determine compliance with section 68 (Responsibility for collection system) of the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016 (RRCEA) and the requirements outlined in Part III (Collection of tires) of the Tires Regulation. The outcome of that examination determined all four collection systems are noncompliant with the Act and Tires Regulation, including:

  • Shortfalls in the required number of sites in various communities for each collection system submitted; these shortfalls remained even when the systems were combined.
  • In a stratified random sample of the collection sites included in the systems, 35% of the sites did not collect tires.
  • In the same sample, of the remaining 65% of sites that did accept tires, half did not accept tires on rims, and half charged consumers for accepting used tires.

As per s. 3.1 of the Tires Regulation, which requires PROs to ensure compliance with s. 6 to 10 (Tire Collection) of the Tires Regulation on behalf of their producer clients, RPRA issued Compliance Orders to all tire PROs on April 5, 2023 requiring them to provide an external audit demonstrating a compliant collection system within two months of receiving the Compliance Order. The name of the auditor and the scope of the audit must be submitted within 10 days of the Compliance Order and approved by the RPRA Inspector. A copy of the order can be found on RPRA’s website. Compliance Orders have been issued to the following tire PROs:

  • eTracks Tire Management Systems
  • Mobius PRO Services
  • Reclay PRO
  • Ryse Solutions Inc.
  • YESS Environmental Services & Solutions Inc.

If a tire producer’s PRO is unable to demonstrate it has a compliant collection system in accordance with section 68 (Responsibility for collection system) of the RRCEA and the requirements outlined in Part III (Collection of tires) of the Tires Regulation, then that PRO’s producer clients may be subject to enforcement action for failure to meet collection system requirements under the Act and Tires Regulation.

Contraventions of the collection system requirements are subject to administrative penalties that could include:

  • The maximum base penalty amount for each producer that fails to satisfy collection system requirements set out in s. 6 to 10 of the Tires Regulation is $200,000 plus economic benefit, which is the value of the benefit gained from breaking the law.
  • The maximum base penalty amount for each producer that fails to satisfy requirements relating to the obligation to ensure no charge is imposed for collecting tires, as set out in s. 68(3) of the RRCEA, is $75,000 per collection site plus economic benefit, which is the value of the benefit gained from breaking the law.

It should be noted that if no tire PRO submits a collection system that satisfies the number of collections sites required under the Tires Regulation or there is no agreement to share systems, producers may be required to engage with multiple PROs to fulfil their collection system requirements.

In accordance with the RRCEA, RPRA is required to publicly post on its website all Compliance Orders and Administrative Penalty Orders, which includes posting the company name and the nature of the contravention.

Further updates on this matter will be communicated once the audit submissions have been reviewed or as required.