Environmental Science & Engineering – January 2002

Alberta’s tire recycling successfully reaches a major
milestone

Albertans are celebrating the accomplishment of recycling 20 million tires
in that province.

"20 million recycled tires means a cleaner environment. It also means
that we have turned what was once a problem into new markets and opportunities
for enterprising Albertans, a testament to the spirit behind our Alberta
Advantage," said Premier Ralph Klein.

Sid Hinton, Chairman of the Tire Recycling Management Association of Alberta
(TRMA), joined the Premier in September to celebrate this milestone at the
Wilbert McIntyre Park in Edmonton, site of a major project using recycled rubber
products.

He said that rubber sidewalk blocks and other products manufactured from
recycled tire material are an innovative and safe alternative for use in parks
and playgrounds.

The Tire Recycling Program was started by the Government of Alberta in 1992
as an initiative to rid the province’s landfills of stockpiles of scrap tires.
Today, virtually all have been eliminated and approximately three million scrap
tires are recycled on an annual basis.

Alberta’s tire recycling program is increasingly recognized as amongst the
best in Canada and around the world. There are a growing number of businesses
in the province that recycle scrap tires into various value added materials and
products, including tire shred, rubber crumb and manufactured rubber products.

The TRMA was established by the Government of Alberta as a separate
administrative agency to collect the $4.00 environmental levy for each new tire
purchased at the retail level. The TRMA is charged with the responsibility of
managing the provincial program for overseeing the recycling of scrap tires.

The first stage of the tire recycling process includes the collection and
shredding of scrap tires. The tire shredding process involves the use of large
machinery that cuts up tires into small pieces (one to two inch and larger). At
this stage, tire shred can be used for a variety of civil engineering projects
(e.g. lightweight fill material for highway projects or leachate collection
material for new landfill cells), or it can be used as feedstock for the
production of crumb (second stage of recycling).

The second stage of the process is crumbing. During this stage, machinery
is used to remove the steel and fibre from the shred, by grinding the material
into fine pieces. The steel is removed by magnets, with the fibre removed by
aspiration. At this stage, crumb can be used for a variety of loose
applications, including top dressing for sports fields (it protects the crown or
growth layer of grass), as a replacement for sand in playgrounds (outperforms
sand three to one), or it can be used as a feedstock for the production of
manufactured products.

The third stage is the manufacturing of products. Alberta companies are
currently manufacturing a variety of products including mats, bricks, sidewalk
blocks, agricultural dairy mats, etc.

The success of Alberta’s tire recycling program is due in large measure to
the cooperation of a number of stakeholders. Key among these is the cooperation
of municipalities and their communities.

Contact: kevin.oneil@trma.com

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