Tire pileup pushes county over capacity amid collection backlog

WELLINGTON COUNTY – The county’s full up on tires, says waste services manager Das Soligo, who’s asking council to put a temporary stop to drop-offs later this month.

Tires are piled high and incoming rubber is being loaded into bins in response to the worsening problem, Soligo told the Advertiser.

Nobody is coming to pick the tires up, and companies registered to the do the job aren’t picking up the phone.

Under provincial law, tire producers are responsible for managing the collection, hauling, processing and recycling of the hundreds of tonnes of tires dropped off in Wellington County each year.

But a change to the law in January 2025 dropped recycling targets for the companies from 85% to just 65% of the tires marketed in the province.

“The producers who are paying these recycling costs, once they meet their targets, it sure looks to me like they just stop collecting the tires. The tire haulers have nowhere to take them if there’s no receiving plant that’s willing to open their gates,” Soligo said.

The county isn’t alone, Soligo said, adding tires “are just piling up all over Ontario” at tire and mechanic shops and at municipal waste depots.

“It’s disappointing that this reduction in recycling targets has caused such a noticeable impact,” Soligo said.

The province has caught on to its problem and is proposing to require “producer responsibility organizations” to remove tires from drop-off points within a month of a request from spring to fall, and within two months during off-peak season.

Soligo said when targets were higher, the county never had an issue.

“People pay a fee on 100% of the tires that are marketed in Ontario, but those companies that are selling them are only required to recycle 65%, so what’s going to happen with the other 35%? That’s what’s now piling up,” Soligo said.

At some county transfer stations tires have been piled well beyond the bunkers meant to contain them and Soligo wants a pause to allow the new rules to take effect and to reduce the backlog.

“It’s by no means an attempt to get out of collecting tires over the long term … we’re at our capacity ... we only have so many bins we can store these things at,” Soligo said.

County council will vote on the recommendation at its June 25 meeting.