Executive Summary Used Tire Regulation
Executive Summary Used Tire Regulation May 29, 2017 The attached briefing note outlines the policy positions of the Ontario Waste Management Association (OWMA) in relation to the development of the province’s new used tires regulation under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act. Ontario’s current Used Tires Program has had remarkable success since it was launched in 2009. Today, it supports ~800 good, well-paying jobs and contributes $66 million annually to the province’s economy by facilitating the collection of more than 130,000 tonnes of tires (equivalent to the weight of over 12 million passenger tires) every year that are recycled into new products. To build upon these successes in the new regulation, the OWMA recommends the following: •
Maintain current definitions and designations of materials while including bicycle tires;
•
Require brand holders to individually register, record-keep and report to the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority while meeting collection, recycling and accessibility targets;
•
Require service providers to register, record-keep and report their performance to the Authority;
•
Incorporate the definitions and metrics of the Canadian Standards Association’s Guideline – SPE-890-15 - A Guideline for accountable management of end-of-life materials into the target-setting process;
•
Continue to promote targets that place an emphasis on higher-end uses of materials, such as molded, extruded and calandered rubber products and support the circular economy already developed in Ontario’s rubber recycling industry;
•
Maintain bans on lower-end uses of materials in applications, such as tire derived fuels;
•
Introduce a disposal ban for used tires to complement the resource recovery regulation;
•
Establish a fair and open market for recovered resources and ensure Ontario’s current industry-funding organizations are not permitted to use the data or infrastructure that they have acquired under the previous system to gain an unfair advantage in the new one.
•
Reference a separate risk-based standard for collectors and haulers similar to that already developed by Ontario Tire Stewardship; and 1
•
Consider the use of policy tools and measures, such as offset protocols, for the use of secondary raw materials, government procurement and other incentives to drive value creation.
Adopting these recommendations will help the government develop a resource recovery regulation for used tires that promotes fair and open competition, increases waste diversion and creates jobs and economic growth throughout the province.
2
Key Components for Used Tire Regulation May 29, 2017
Background The Used Tires Program has had remarkable impact in Ontario both from an environmental and economic perspective. Its successes include: • Investments in more than $100 million worth of processing capacity in Ontario; • Support for ~800 well-paid, annual full-time equivalent jobs; o Recycling creates 10 times more jobs than disposal, according to the Conference Board of Canada; • The addition of over $66 million annually to the provincial gross domestic product; o Economic benefits are at least 300% greater than the net cost to recycle; • Collection of more than 130,000 tonnes of tires annually (with capacity in the province to process and manufacture Ontario’s recycled rubber into value-added products), which is equivalent to the weight of over 12 million passenger tires;1 • Clean-up of stockpiled tires across the province, which pose both health and environmental risks (e.g. Hagersville Tire Fire, which over the span of 17 days, consumed roughly 14 million tires); and, • A significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of more than 65,000 tonnes of eCO2 annually, which is equivalent to taking more than 13,000 vehicles off the road. The direction the government is taking under the Waste-Free Ontario Act & Strategy to transition the Used Tires Program is generally positive because it will encourage competition and innovation while ensuring proper oversight and enforcement. Still, vigilance remains necessary to ensure the program continues to support past successes both economically and environmentally. As a result, the following report offers recommendations on how the new used tires regulation should be drafted by answering the following five key questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
What materials should be included in the new regulation? What are the compliance requirements for both producers and service providers? How should definitions, standards and targets be established? What, if any, additional policy tools should be considered? What should be considered in the wind-up of the current program and industry-funding organization?
Core Principles The OWMA has applied a principles-based approach to all of these questions in order to represent the waste management sector’s priorities for increased resource recovery and 1
Using an average weight of 10.78 kg based on a 2013 report “Scrap Tire Weight and Characteristics Study Passenger Light Truck (PLT) that is available at http://www.tirestewardshipmb.ca/wp-content/uploads/Scrap-TireWeight-and-Characteristics-Study-October-2013-1.pdf.
3
environmental protection as the government begins developing new regulations under the Waste-Free Ontario Act. The following principles apply to this response, as well as to all of our other submissions: •
Building the circular economy through a comprehensive policy approach: o Transitioning to a more circular economy in Ontario will require several complementary policies to incentivize activities that will increase the recovery of resources out of the waste stream. o Extended producer responsibility is an effective approach that should be complemented, where necessary, with additional policy tools and mechanisms, such as disposal bans, to deliver results.
•
Fostering a fair, open and competitive marketplace for both producers and service providers: o The government should refrain from being prescriptive, and, instead, set targets and standards that allow innovative and competitive markets to deliver results. o Extended producer responsibility functions best in an open market where both producers and service providers are free to compete and collaborate on finding the most efficient way to collect and recycle products and materials. o A key component of establishing a fair market for resource recovery is ensuring Ontario’s current industry-funding organizations are not permitted to use the resources and data that they have acquired under the previous system to gain an unfair advantage in the new one. o The government can strike the right balance in the new regulations by considering the guidelines laid out in the OECD Competition Toolkit and the OECD Updated Guidance for Efficient Waste Management.
•
Establishing a level-playing field: o No individual or organization should be permitted to use resources and data that have been acquired under the previous system to gain an unfair advantage under the new one.
•
Holding individual producers responsible: o Each producer should be held individually responsible for meeting accessibility, collection, recycling targets and standards. To meet these requirements, they can either work on their own or with one another in a collective organization that complies with Canadian competition law.
•
Maintaining service provider accountability: o Service providers, including collectors, haulers, processors should be required to record-keep, report and register with the Authority. Recycled product manufacturers who are also service providers should be required to record-keep and report to ensure rigour within the system that materials are being managed properly at the end of life. This sight line throughout the recycling chain is pivotal to the integrity of the system.
•
Setting resource recovery targets that result in meaningful environmental protection: o The government should set ambitious resource recovery targets that rise yearover-year to increase the recycling and reduction of waste in Ontario. 4
o
o
Accessibility, collection and recycling requirements should complement targets while providing credit, where applicable, for higher-end uses of recycled materials and the promotion of greater environmental and economic outcomes. Regulations should clearly lay out performance expectations while ensuring recycling targets do not act as “ceilings” that allow producers to stop collection once they are achieved. (One way to solve this problem would be allowing for year-to-year carryovers if targets are exceeded in one year.)
•
Minimizing greenhouse gas emissions: o Wherever possible, goals should be set to lower GHG emissions.
•
Clearly defining obligated materials or products: o With new products entering the marketplace all of the time, more general terms should be used to define materials under the new regulations to ensure that all recyclable materials are captured under resource recovery requirements. o The scope is important as it ensures an economy of scale and allows materials to be more easily managed.
•
Ensuring transparency: o The government should ensure that targets are set in a way that is understandable for all parties while maintaining a reliable system to measure performance against targets in an open and transparent manner.
•
Providing convenient and accessible resource recovery services: o Regulations, should be established to ensure that rural parts of the province are not neglected.
Key Elements of the New Used Tire Regulation 1. What materials or products should be included in the new regulation (existing/new)? The current Used Tires Program defines the designated materials in the following ways: Current Tire Definition: • Ontario Regulation 84/03 - Used tires are defined quite broadly to include all tires that for any reason are not suitable for their originally intended purpose, thereby excluding used tires that have been refurbished. The final approved Used Tires Program Plan (UTPP) defined used tires on page 95 as: Tires from all types of passenger and commercial on-road and off-the-road (OTR) motorized vehicles: including tires that are comprised primarily of rubber mounted on passenger vehicles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, mobile homes, trailers, aircraft, earthmoving, road building, mining, logging, agricultural, industrial and other vehicles to provide mobility; and excluding used tires from toys, bicycles, personal mobility devices and commercial aircraft.
5
OWMA Recommendation: • The government should incorporate the current definitions for used tires in the new regulation. Bicycle tires should be included in the definition but no materials should be removed. Removing materials would reduce the economic and environmental performance of the program. Convenience and transport packaging are not applicable to this product. 2. What are the compliance requirements for both producers and service providers? Requirements for producers: The current definition under the Waste Diversion Transition Act defines the responsible party, ‘a steward’, as a person having a commercial connection to the designated waste or to a product from which the designated waste is derived. The program request letter on page 3 defines brand owners and first importers for the purposes of this program as: a. “The registered owner of the brand, or b. A licensee of the brand, or c. A person who owns the intellectual property rights to the brand, or d. A person who is the licensee, in respect of the intellectual property rights of the brand. For the purpose of this program, a first importer means a person who imports tires into Ontario, for which a brand owner does not exist in Ontario, and who is the first to take title to the tires upon or after arrival in Ontario from elsewhere. A retailer shall not be identified as a steward in the funding rules for the program unless the retailer is a brand owner or first importer of the tires.” The Waste-Free Ontario Act defines a brand holder as “a person who owns or licences a brand or who otherwise has rights to market a product under the brand.” OWMA Recommendation: • The government should maintain the definition for brand holder under the current program. Brand holders should be required to individually register, record-keep and report to the Authority while meeting accessibility, collection, and recycling targets. Requirements related to promotion and education are not necessary to achieve results as the market will dictate the level of promotion necessary to achieve the intended outcomes. However, the province should consider requiring promotion and education efforts to ensure consumer protection. Requirements for service providers: To ensure the proper oversight of the outcomes, standards are worth enforcing directly against all parties who are required to carry them out. OWMA Recommendations: o Service providers, including collectors, haulers, processors should be required to record-keep, report and register with the Authority. Recycled product manufacturers who are also service providers should be required to record-keep 6
and report to ensure rigour within the system that materials are being managed properly at the end of life. This sight line throughout the recycling chain is pivotal to the integrity of the system. •
• •
The Canadian Standards Association’s Guideline - SPE-890-15 - A Guideline for accountable management of end-of-life materials provides the parameters by which the government can ensure standardized reporting and proper oversight. The sector supports the use of this guideline with at a minimum annual third-party, independent audits. A separate standard would need to be established for collectors and haulers. The Ontario Tire Stewardship’s Hauler Guidebook & Standards and the Collector Guidebook could provide a starting point. Both of these standards should be adapted to ensure the requirements are adapted appropriately based on inherent risk. OWMA members would be pleased to assist in the development of these standards.
3. How should definitions, standards and targets be established? The current program as directed by the Minister’s request letter helps to define how recycling has been developed in the program. Priority is given to diverting used tires “to higher end uses whenever possible based on the 3Rs … Landfilling, the use of used tires as daily cover at landfills, or incineration shall not be part of the program unless the 3Rs are not available or technically feasible.” OWMA Recommendation: The OWMA supports the continued promotion of targets that place an emphasis on higher-end uses and foster the development of a strong circular economy that creates jobs within the province while reducing Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions. As part of this effort, lower-end uses, such as waste-derived fuels, should not to be permitted. The current program has succeeded in promoting higher-end manufacturing processes, including molded, extruded and calandered rubber products, which generate greater economic and environmental returns. To maintain a high level of waste diversion for tires, these definitions should continue to be used to set recycling targets. The Canadian Standards Association’s Guideline - SPE-890-15 - A Guideline for accountable management of end-of-life materials provides a basis for the definition of recycling that could be used to ensure the continued promotion of higher-end uses. The Guideline defines recycling as any operation by which end-of-life products or materials are reprocessed into new products, materials, or substances (solid, liquids or gases), whether for original or other purposes, to replace virgin equivalents of that material.
7
It should also be noted that the current program provides a preference for Ontario processing and end-users. This preference helps to: o reduce environmental impacts, such as GHG emissions related to transportation; o provide better accountability and oversight on how materials are being managed; and, o create good local, well-paying jobs in the resource recovery and recycling sectors. A recent study by AECOM shows a significant contribution to jobs and GDP to Ontario’s economy through the utilization of 100% of crumb rubber by recycled product manufacturers. OWMA Recommendation: • There is tremendous value for the government to continue developing a strong local circular economy by ensuring environmental requirements and accountability are fully accommodated. The Ministry of Economic Development & Growth should also consider mechanisms to better promote the use of secondary raw materials in Ontario’s manufacturing sector. The OWMA has provided feedback to the government already about the potential for developing offset protocols related to the use of secondary raw materials, which are already in development in Alberta. The tables below illustrate the current performance of the OTS program versus the targets already set.
8
OWMA Recommendations: • Targets should, at a minimum, be based on current program targets, along with the metrics and definitions set out in SPE-890-15 - A Guideline for accountable management of end-of-life materials which includes targets that promote use up the value hierarchy. • To ensure that Ontario residents and businesses can conveniently drop off tires for recycling, producers must be required to meet accessibility targets for collection. • Given today’s performance, the government should set collection targets for all types of tires (PLT, MT and OTR) based on a 100% collection rate with no discount rate applied. Currently, a 10% discount rate is applied to passenger tires and a 15% rate applied to off-road tires. • In keeping with the government’s Climate Change Action Plan, a GHG-emission factor should also be included as part of the regulated outcomes. 4. What, if any, additional policy tools should be considered? OWMA Recommendation: • The province should apply a disposal ban in combination with the regulation to assist in delivering environmental and economic outcomes. This is an approach successfully employed by many other jurisdictions and the conditions are already in place for a successful disposal ban to be implemented for used tires in Ontario. The OWMA policy paper on disposal bans provides specific considerations on how that disposal ban might be implemented. 5. What should be considered in the wind-up of the current program? A key component of establishing a fair and open market for resource recovery is ensuring Ontario’s current industry-funding organizations are not permitted to use the resources and data that they have acquired under the previous system to gain an unfair advantage in the new one. OWMA Recommendation: • The wind-up of the current program should ensure surplus funds, the data management infrastructure and the data itself are managed accordingly.
9
Maintain current definitions and designations of materials while including bicycle tires;
•
Require brand holders to individually register, record-keep and report to the Resource Productivity and Recovery Authority while meeting collection, recycling and accessibility targets;
•
Require service providers to register, record-keep and report their performance to the Authority;
•
Incorporate the definitions and metrics of the Canadian Standards Association’s Guideline – SPE-890-15 - A Guideline for accountable management of end-of-life materials into the target-setting process;
•
Continue to promote targets that place an emphasis on higher-end uses of materials, such as molded, extruded and calandered rubber products and support the circular economy already developed in Ontario’s rubber recycling industry;
•
Maintain bans on lower-end uses of materials in applications, such as tire derived fuels;
•
Introduce a disposal ban for used tires to complement the resource recovery regulation;
•
Establish a fair and open market for recovered resources and ensure Ontario’s current industry-funding organizations are not permitted to use the data or infrastructure that they have acquired under the previous system to gain an unfair advantage in the new one.
•
Reference a separate risk-based standard for collectors and haulers similar to that already developed by Ontario Tire Stewardship; and 1
•
Consider the use of policy tools and measures, such as offset protocols, for the use of secondary raw materials, government procurement and other incentives to drive value creation.
Adopting these recommendations will help the government develop a resource recovery regulation for used tires that promotes fair and open competition, increases waste diversion and creates jobs and economic growth throughout the province.
2
Key Components for Used Tire Regulation May 29, 2017
Background The Used Tires Program has had remarkable impact in Ontario both from an environmental and economic perspective. Its successes include: • Investments in more than $100 million worth of processing capacity in Ontario; • Support for ~800 well-paid, annual full-time equivalent jobs; o Recycling creates 10 times more jobs than disposal, according to the Conference Board of Canada; • The addition of over $66 million annually to the provincial gross domestic product; o Economic benefits are at least 300% greater than the net cost to recycle; • Collection of more than 130,000 tonnes of tires annually (with capacity in the province to process and manufacture Ontario’s recycled rubber into value-added products), which is equivalent to the weight of over 12 million passenger tires;1 • Clean-up of stockpiled tires across the province, which pose both health and environmental risks (e.g. Hagersville Tire Fire, which over the span of 17 days, consumed roughly 14 million tires); and, • A significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of more than 65,000 tonnes of eCO2 annually, which is equivalent to taking more than 13,000 vehicles off the road. The direction the government is taking under the Waste-Free Ontario Act & Strategy to transition the Used Tires Program is generally positive because it will encourage competition and innovation while ensuring proper oversight and enforcement. Still, vigilance remains necessary to ensure the program continues to support past successes both economically and environmentally. As a result, the following report offers recommendations on how the new used tires regulation should be drafted by answering the following five key questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
What materials should be included in the new regulation? What are the compliance requirements for both producers and service providers? How should definitions, standards and targets be established? What, if any, additional policy tools should be considered? What should be considered in the wind-up of the current program and industry-funding organization?
Core Principles The OWMA has applied a principles-based approach to all of these questions in order to represent the waste management sector’s priorities for increased resource recovery and 1
Using an average weight of 10.78 kg based on a 2013 report “Scrap Tire Weight and Characteristics Study Passenger Light Truck (PLT) that is available at http://www.tirestewardshipmb.ca/wp-content/uploads/Scrap-TireWeight-and-Characteristics-Study-October-2013-1.pdf.
3
environmental protection as the government begins developing new regulations under the Waste-Free Ontario Act. The following principles apply to this response, as well as to all of our other submissions: •
Building the circular economy through a comprehensive policy approach: o Transitioning to a more circular economy in Ontario will require several complementary policies to incentivize activities that will increase the recovery of resources out of the waste stream. o Extended producer responsibility is an effective approach that should be complemented, where necessary, with additional policy tools and mechanisms, such as disposal bans, to deliver results.
•
Fostering a fair, open and competitive marketplace for both producers and service providers: o The government should refrain from being prescriptive, and, instead, set targets and standards that allow innovative and competitive markets to deliver results. o Extended producer responsibility functions best in an open market where both producers and service providers are free to compete and collaborate on finding the most efficient way to collect and recycle products and materials. o A key component of establishing a fair market for resource recovery is ensuring Ontario’s current industry-funding organizations are not permitted to use the resources and data that they have acquired under the previous system to gain an unfair advantage in the new one. o The government can strike the right balance in the new regulations by considering the guidelines laid out in the OECD Competition Toolkit and the OECD Updated Guidance for Efficient Waste Management.
•
Establishing a level-playing field: o No individual or organization should be permitted to use resources and data that have been acquired under the previous system to gain an unfair advantage under the new one.
•
Holding individual producers responsible: o Each producer should be held individually responsible for meeting accessibility, collection, recycling targets and standards. To meet these requirements, they can either work on their own or with one another in a collective organization that complies with Canadian competition law.
•
Maintaining service provider accountability: o Service providers, including collectors, haulers, processors should be required to record-keep, report and register with the Authority. Recycled product manufacturers who are also service providers should be required to record-keep and report to ensure rigour within the system that materials are being managed properly at the end of life. This sight line throughout the recycling chain is pivotal to the integrity of the system.
•
Setting resource recovery targets that result in meaningful environmental protection: o The government should set ambitious resource recovery targets that rise yearover-year to increase the recycling and reduction of waste in Ontario. 4
o
o
Accessibility, collection and recycling requirements should complement targets while providing credit, where applicable, for higher-end uses of recycled materials and the promotion of greater environmental and economic outcomes. Regulations should clearly lay out performance expectations while ensuring recycling targets do not act as “ceilings” that allow producers to stop collection once they are achieved. (One way to solve this problem would be allowing for year-to-year carryovers if targets are exceeded in one year.)
•
Minimizing greenhouse gas emissions: o Wherever possible, goals should be set to lower GHG emissions.
•
Clearly defining obligated materials or products: o With new products entering the marketplace all of the time, more general terms should be used to define materials under the new regulations to ensure that all recyclable materials are captured under resource recovery requirements. o The scope is important as it ensures an economy of scale and allows materials to be more easily managed.
•
Ensuring transparency: o The government should ensure that targets are set in a way that is understandable for all parties while maintaining a reliable system to measure performance against targets in an open and transparent manner.
•
Providing convenient and accessible resource recovery services: o Regulations, should be established to ensure that rural parts of the province are not neglected.
Key Elements of the New Used Tire Regulation 1. What materials or products should be included in the new regulation (existing/new)? The current Used Tires Program defines the designated materials in the following ways: Current Tire Definition: • Ontario Regulation 84/03 - Used tires are defined quite broadly to include all tires that for any reason are not suitable for their originally intended purpose, thereby excluding used tires that have been refurbished. The final approved Used Tires Program Plan (UTPP) defined used tires on page 95 as: Tires from all types of passenger and commercial on-road and off-the-road (OTR) motorized vehicles: including tires that are comprised primarily of rubber mounted on passenger vehicles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, mobile homes, trailers, aircraft, earthmoving, road building, mining, logging, agricultural, industrial and other vehicles to provide mobility; and excluding used tires from toys, bicycles, personal mobility devices and commercial aircraft.
5
OWMA Recommendation: • The government should incorporate the current definitions for used tires in the new regulation. Bicycle tires should be included in the definition but no materials should be removed. Removing materials would reduce the economic and environmental performance of the program. Convenience and transport packaging are not applicable to this product. 2. What are the compliance requirements for both producers and service providers? Requirements for producers: The current definition under the Waste Diversion Transition Act defines the responsible party, ‘a steward’, as a person having a commercial connection to the designated waste or to a product from which the designated waste is derived. The program request letter on page 3 defines brand owners and first importers for the purposes of this program as: a. “The registered owner of the brand, or b. A licensee of the brand, or c. A person who owns the intellectual property rights to the brand, or d. A person who is the licensee, in respect of the intellectual property rights of the brand. For the purpose of this program, a first importer means a person who imports tires into Ontario, for which a brand owner does not exist in Ontario, and who is the first to take title to the tires upon or after arrival in Ontario from elsewhere. A retailer shall not be identified as a steward in the funding rules for the program unless the retailer is a brand owner or first importer of the tires.” The Waste-Free Ontario Act defines a brand holder as “a person who owns or licences a brand or who otherwise has rights to market a product under the brand.” OWMA Recommendation: • The government should maintain the definition for brand holder under the current program. Brand holders should be required to individually register, record-keep and report to the Authority while meeting accessibility, collection, and recycling targets. Requirements related to promotion and education are not necessary to achieve results as the market will dictate the level of promotion necessary to achieve the intended outcomes. However, the province should consider requiring promotion and education efforts to ensure consumer protection. Requirements for service providers: To ensure the proper oversight of the outcomes, standards are worth enforcing directly against all parties who are required to carry them out. OWMA Recommendations: o Service providers, including collectors, haulers, processors should be required to record-keep, report and register with the Authority. Recycled product manufacturers who are also service providers should be required to record-keep 6
and report to ensure rigour within the system that materials are being managed properly at the end of life. This sight line throughout the recycling chain is pivotal to the integrity of the system. •
• •
The Canadian Standards Association’s Guideline - SPE-890-15 - A Guideline for accountable management of end-of-life materials provides the parameters by which the government can ensure standardized reporting and proper oversight. The sector supports the use of this guideline with at a minimum annual third-party, independent audits. A separate standard would need to be established for collectors and haulers. The Ontario Tire Stewardship’s Hauler Guidebook & Standards and the Collector Guidebook could provide a starting point. Both of these standards should be adapted to ensure the requirements are adapted appropriately based on inherent risk. OWMA members would be pleased to assist in the development of these standards.
3. How should definitions, standards and targets be established? The current program as directed by the Minister’s request letter helps to define how recycling has been developed in the program. Priority is given to diverting used tires “to higher end uses whenever possible based on the 3Rs … Landfilling, the use of used tires as daily cover at landfills, or incineration shall not be part of the program unless the 3Rs are not available or technically feasible.” OWMA Recommendation: The OWMA supports the continued promotion of targets that place an emphasis on higher-end uses and foster the development of a strong circular economy that creates jobs within the province while reducing Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions. As part of this effort, lower-end uses, such as waste-derived fuels, should not to be permitted. The current program has succeeded in promoting higher-end manufacturing processes, including molded, extruded and calandered rubber products, which generate greater economic and environmental returns. To maintain a high level of waste diversion for tires, these definitions should continue to be used to set recycling targets. The Canadian Standards Association’s Guideline - SPE-890-15 - A Guideline for accountable management of end-of-life materials provides a basis for the definition of recycling that could be used to ensure the continued promotion of higher-end uses. The Guideline defines recycling as any operation by which end-of-life products or materials are reprocessed into new products, materials, or substances (solid, liquids or gases), whether for original or other purposes, to replace virgin equivalents of that material.
7
It should also be noted that the current program provides a preference for Ontario processing and end-users. This preference helps to: o reduce environmental impacts, such as GHG emissions related to transportation; o provide better accountability and oversight on how materials are being managed; and, o create good local, well-paying jobs in the resource recovery and recycling sectors. A recent study by AECOM shows a significant contribution to jobs and GDP to Ontario’s economy through the utilization of 100% of crumb rubber by recycled product manufacturers. OWMA Recommendation: • There is tremendous value for the government to continue developing a strong local circular economy by ensuring environmental requirements and accountability are fully accommodated. The Ministry of Economic Development & Growth should also consider mechanisms to better promote the use of secondary raw materials in Ontario’s manufacturing sector. The OWMA has provided feedback to the government already about the potential for developing offset protocols related to the use of secondary raw materials, which are already in development in Alberta. The tables below illustrate the current performance of the OTS program versus the targets already set.
8
OWMA Recommendations: • Targets should, at a minimum, be based on current program targets, along with the metrics and definitions set out in SPE-890-15 - A Guideline for accountable management of end-of-life materials which includes targets that promote use up the value hierarchy. • To ensure that Ontario residents and businesses can conveniently drop off tires for recycling, producers must be required to meet accessibility targets for collection. • Given today’s performance, the government should set collection targets for all types of tires (PLT, MT and OTR) based on a 100% collection rate with no discount rate applied. Currently, a 10% discount rate is applied to passenger tires and a 15% rate applied to off-road tires. • In keeping with the government’s Climate Change Action Plan, a GHG-emission factor should also be included as part of the regulated outcomes. 4. What, if any, additional policy tools should be considered? OWMA Recommendation: • The province should apply a disposal ban in combination with the regulation to assist in delivering environmental and economic outcomes. This is an approach successfully employed by many other jurisdictions and the conditions are already in place for a successful disposal ban to be implemented for used tires in Ontario. The OWMA policy paper on disposal bans provides specific considerations on how that disposal ban might be implemented. 5. What should be considered in the wind-up of the current program? A key component of establishing a fair and open market for resource recovery is ensuring Ontario’s current industry-funding organizations are not permitted to use the resources and data that they have acquired under the previous system to gain an unfair advantage in the new one. OWMA Recommendation: • The wind-up of the current program should ensure surplus funds, the data management infrastructure and the data itself are managed accordingly.
9
