Tires were banned from disposal in landfills and municipal incinerators in Nova Scotia on April 1, 1996. RRFB Nova Scotia was tasked with establishing a used-tire management program to recover and reprocess used tires. The program was launched in 1997 and initially operated in Cornwallis under TRACC until 1999, and under Nova Tire Recyclers until 2000. Then in 2001, Atlantic Recycled Rubber took over the contract and built a cryogenic rubber processing plant -- which produced rubber "crumb" -- in Kemptown, near Truro.

In the final year of its contract, Atlantic Recycled Rubber (ARR) had difficulty collecting used tires, and the quality of its service to tire retailers deteriorated. During this time the company approached RRFB Nova Scotia and asked for a 50% increase in the amount that the RRFB was paying them to collect and process used tires. RRFB Nova Scotia was not in a position to change the terms of the contract and increase the amount paid to ARR to collect and process the tires.

Earlier in 2006, RRFB Nova Scotia advised ARR that their contract would not be automatically renewed and that RRFB Nova Scotia would issue a Request for Proposals for a new tire collection and processing contract. ARR did not bid on the new contract.

ARR's contract expired on December 9, 2006.

RRFB Nova Scotia began an interim tire collection program on December 11, 2006. All scrap tires at tire retailers, auto salvage yards, landfills and on private properties will be collected and shipped to various tire processors in Quebec.

As of March, 2007 RRFB Nova Scotia has collected and shipped over 400,000 tires out of the province.

Yes, some of the tires are being sent to cement plants in Quebec while others are going to tire processing facilities in Quebec.

There are no large stockpiles of tires in Nova Scotia. However, some scrap yards and large retailers were storing hundreds of tires at their businesses. Cleaning up this backlog has been a priority for RRFB Nova Scotia.

The RRFB takes pride in the great strides our province has made in solid-waste diversion over the past decade. We have an enviable record, thanks to the commitment and efforts of Nova Scotians. Although many of our waste diversion successes have focused on recycling, our broader mission also promotes other ways to turn solid waste into something of value. The RRFB supports only those waste diversion approaches that add value, and that do no harm to the environment.

The Lafarge Canada proposal to collect and process Nova Scotia's used tires adds value to this solid waste, and is environmentally sound. Using tires as fuel recovers the significant amount of energy in tires and thereby reduces the burning of coal - a non-renewable fossil fuel - in the cement-making process. (In the case of Lafarge's Brookfield cement kiln, coal use will be reduced by upwards of 20 percent.) Of most significance, greenhouse gases are reduced a further 22,000 metric tonnes annually as a result of closing the Kemptown tire crumbing operation.

Before awarding the contract to Lafarge Canada, the RRFB commissioned an independent review to assess the potential air emissions from using "tire-derived fuel" in the Brookfield cement kiln. The report concluded that emissions generated from using tires as fuel at the Brookfield facility would not result in any significant increase in harmful emissions and that the emissions would be well within the most stringent limits in Canada. Further, a peer review of this report by an independent toxicologist concluded there would be no harmful effects on human health. [Technical Reports]

The Nova Scotia government has also commissioned a separate, independent review of the environmental effects of using tire-derived fuels in cement kilns in other jurisdictions. The report is expected to be released in the spring of 2007. In addition, Lafarge Canada will be required to secure any necessary approvals from the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Labour before it can use scrap tires as an alternate fuel at its Brookfield facility.

The Dalhousie science review is commissioned by Nova Scotia Environment and Labour and is independent of RRFB Nova Scotia's decision to award the tire collection and processing contract. The successful proponent of the contract must have all the necessary approvals and permits from Nova Scotia Environment and Labour in place before the contract can be finalized.

RRFB Nova Scotia remains fully committed to a clean environment and the principles of the province's Solid Waste-Resource Management Strategy. Since the Used-Tire Management Program began in 1997, RRFB Nova Scotia tried the value-added approach with respect to tires. The tire-recycling contract has changed hands three times in the past nine years. This tells us that recycling tires in Nova Scotia simply isn't viable. RRFB Nova Scotia would have preferred a recycling solution. However, the Lafarge proposal to recover energy from used tires clearly offers a stable and environmentally sound way to manage used tires in our province.

In Nova Scotia, scrap tires are banned from disposal in landfills and municipal incinerators. Open burning of tires is also prohibited.

Using tires as an alternate fuel in cement kilns diverts them from disposal - and recovers energy from a waste product. It also offsets the need for burning imported coal in the Lafarge cement kiln.

The Lafarge contract calls for the collection and processing of used tires for $2.65 per passenger-tire-equivalent. The previous contracts were fixed at $2.50 until last December.

RRFB Nova Scotia does not expect an increase for at least three years.

The new contract is worth approximately $2.4 million per year. That figure will vary, based on the number of tires collected annually.

Lafarge will be making all of the capital investments necessary for this project.

If Lafarge receives the necessary approval from the Province to use tires in their cement kiln, they will need to upgrade their facility at Brookfield to accept the used tires in the kiln. These upgrades could take several months. In the interim, Lafarge will truck used tires to their St. Constant cement kiln in Quebec. Once upgrades are completed at Brookfield, Lafarge plans to use about 60% of Nova Scotia's scrap tires for fuel in the cement plant in Brookfield. They will ship the remaining 40% of the tires to one of their cement kilns in Quebec.

Lafarge is a multi-national corporation that uses tires in cement kilns all over the world. It has substantial expertise in the safe, efficient collection and storage of used tires for its operations. Lafarge also has a reputation as an active community-minded organization in areas where it operates.