Ontario raises tire recycling target after a year of industry chaos and stockpiles across the province - Toronto Star

The province is also expanding collection sites to 6,500 after a target drop in 2025 left garages and yards unable to get used tires picked up.

A stockpile of tires in the County of Wellington is pictured in this file photo from last summer.

The Ontario government is raising the recycling target for tires after more than a year of chaos in the industry caused by an earlier provincial decision to reduce the level.

The new target requires tire producers to recycle, reuse or retread 80 per cent, by weight, of the tires they sell in the province, up from 65 per cent, one of a series of amendments to the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act of 2016 announced by the province on Monday.

The Ontario Tire Dealers Association, which has been advocating for the increase, said it is reviewing the amendments, but that the changes by the environment ministry look positive “at a high level.”

The new target should kick-start a once-robust tire recycling industry that was hit hard when the government lowered the recycling target at the beginning of 2025. The reduction meant hundreds of garages and tire dealers couldn't get their used tires picked up because the producer responsibility organizations (PROs) that handle recycling for tire companies didn't need them to meet the lowered target.

Ontario consumers paid millions in recycling fees when buying tires. Now, tire producers — not the consumers — are getting the money back.