For over 20 years, the Saskatchewan Scrap Tire Corporation (SSTC) has operated a scrap tyre product management program on behalf of 1,380 Saskatchewan retailers of motor vehicle tyres.
New Era in Saskatchewan
However, at the end of August, the non-profit, non-governmental agency ceased to operate.
“Ultimately, the decision was up to the Saskatchewan Scrap Tire board about whether or not to dissolve — that was their decision,” said Wes Kotyk, assistant deputy minister with the Ministry of the Environment.
He explained the decision came after the environment minister established an advisory committee in January to do a review of the scrap tyre programme.
“A number of recommendations came out of that review and resulted in some scrap tyre regulations being changed,” Kotyk said.
The main drivers for the regulatory changes were to address the public’s expectation for governance, improved accountability and transparency, he said.
“There was some confusion about the government’s role — was it the steward’s role or was it SSTC’s role for managing certain components, especially when it got on to the back end of the process and use of the tyres,” Kotyk said.
He noted there were no problems at the front end when consumers dropped off tyres.
“That system seemed to be working quite effectively,” Kotyk said.
“The previous program didn’t allow for ease of implementing any changes or moving things forward,” he said.
Previously, any shortfall in collections could not be influenced by the ministry. The newly introduced changes now allow government to impose conditions requiring education and effective chain management.
In September, the Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan, a non-profit agency, became the new program operator established by industry to oversee tyre recycling in the province.
Consumers will continue to pay recycling fees to retailers based on the classification of a vehicle, and the fees will be used for the recycling of scrap tyres and administration of the scrap tyre program.
Fees will remain the same under the new program operator.
