The TSS focuses on capturing tires at the retailer location before they have a chance to be landfilled or stockpiled on private lands in communities across the province.

The TSS has over 1400 retailer participants who capture tires immediately that are generated at the time of new tire purchases/changeovers and direct the waste to recycling. Consumers are always encouraged to leave their old tires with the retailers.

Additional programs like the Return to Retailer (R2R) offered by the TSS provide solutions to Saskatchewan residents who have small numbers of accumulated waste tires to dispose of. The R2R program provides consumers an opportunity to participate in responsible scrap tire stewardship by placing their scrap tires into the recycle stream through the R2R Program. R2R allows Saskatchewan residents to drop off a maximum of ten (10) rimless scrap tires, free of charge, at select tire retailers during business hours, even if the tires were not originally purchased at that location.

The TSS partners with a number of trucking companies who collect the tires from retailers and a processing facility that recycles the tires into useable marketable items that are useful for public use like road paving, playground surfaces, paving blocks/stones, shingles, mats and many other products.

Under the TSS program, there are 5 eligible tire types:

• Passenger Car/Light Truck

• Medium Truck

• Agricultural

• OTR I

• OTR II

Tires that are not included under the program include:

• Wheelbarrow tires

• Wheelchair/electric mobility aid tires

• Any tire with a rim size of less than 7"

Bicycle tires are not typically part of the TSS program in that there are no recycling fees attached to the sale of a new bike tire. However, there is a voluntary recycling partnership between supporting bike retailers in Saskatchewan and the TSS. The bike tire recycling program works with the existing scrap tire collection and recycling programs, funded by the TSS.

Small Volumes

On small volumes of tires, the preference is for farmers to use the Return to Retailer (R2R) program offered by the TSS that allows Saskatchewan residents to drop off a maximum of ten (10) rimless scrap tires, free of charge, at select tire retailers during business hours, even if the tires were not originally purchased at that location.

Large Volumes

Before there was a provincial scrap tire management and recycling program, used tires were often stockpiled on private property and farmland because there was no other disposal option available. The TSS works with Rural Municipalities and focuses on the clean-up of these large stockpiles of tires throughout the province. For more information please contact the TSS office to register your pile for a future potential cleanup initiative. If it is a pressing issue to remove tires from a location, TSS can discuss other potential options on a cost-recovery basis to the end-user.

The TSS works with retailers, collectors, and their processor to ensure that scrap tires are disposed of properly. The TSS currently has three contracted service providers in Saskatchewan to provide collection services to retailers and transportation of scrap tires to their registered processor where they are recycled and repurposed into usable, marketable items such as playground surfaces, road paving material, patio blocks, shingles, mats and a whole lot more. Please contact the TSS office for inquiries related to tire pickups and service needs.

The TSS relies on a user pay principle, which means that the consumer of the tire bears the responsibility for the product once it has reached the end of its useful life. All of the fees are used solely for the recycling of scrap tires and administration of the scrap tire program.

The tire recycling fee applies wherever the first retail sale (or deemed sale) of a new tire takes place in Saskatchewan. This includes sales to non-residents that are completed within the province of Saskatchewan.

The TSS sets the tire recycling fee that is to be charged at the point-of-sale of all new tires. All rates are registered and approved by the Ministry of Environment. Refer to the "Retailer Info" section of the TSS website for more information.

Visit www.tssk.ca, call 1-306-790-1894 or email contactus@tssk.ca for more information.