Local auto shops 'face challenges' over massive used tire backlog

Small auto shops in Ramara are bracing for more tire-related problems this winter.

“We’re going to face challenges,” says Jason Garner, an employee of Mike’s Autobody and Tyre in Brechin who has worked in the industry since he was in high school.

He foresees issues as customers swap summer tires for winter ones, increasing the number of tires needing disposal.

The problems have snowballed since last year. Without a stated reason, the Province of Ontario reduced the tire recycling and collection targets for producers early in 2025.

The 65 per cent target was reset to 80 per cent for 2026, but addressing the backlog has remained an issue.

Adam Moffatt, executive director of the Ontario Tire Dealers Association, has said before — and recently repeated on a podcast — that the producers who were held responsible for recycling tires are the only ones who benefited from the reduced targets.

No service providers, collection sites, nor Ontario consumers benefited from lowering the collection and recycling quotas for tires, he stated.

“Nothing has changed,” says Michael O’Donnell, owner of the Brechin shop.

Mike’s Autobody is a collection site registered with Ontario’s only not-for-profit tire producer responsibility organization (PRO), eTracks.

Under Ontario’s Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) framework, PROs partner with producers like Goodyear, Bridgestone, or Toyo Tire, who import and sell tires in the province, to recycle the materials.

Moffatt said the previous quotas of 85 per cent collection of materials and 85 per cent mandatory recycling were “reasonable,” since a used tire loses about 15 per cent of its original weight and about 15 per cent of the used tire is not recyclable.

But the Ontario government merged the two targets into one and lowered it to 65 per cent, which caused the excessive backlogs of 2025.

Between April and October this year, O’Donnell had no tires picked up from his property.

Garner often sends emails inquiring about collections.

“You get a response, but no action,” he says.

The only reason the tires were collected recently is because Neal Jolly, owner of Jolly’s Automotive down the street from Mike’s, solicited a private company to pick them up.

He would not say the name of the company for fear of losing the service. It is based further north and would only come to Brechin for a minimum of 900 tires.

This volume was met by combining Jolly’s 250 or so tires with some of the stack piled up at Mike’s.

Although it recognized the shop’s registration with eTracks, and thus came at no additional cost, there were stipulations. If the collection takes any longer than one hour, Jolly would be charged for the truck and the driver. This would be an hourly rate of about $185.

His staff was also required to load the tractor-trailer.

“They got rid of what they had, and then we just got whatever’s out of our pile, as much as we could. We filled a 53-foot trailer up,” says Garner.

The problems were also seen at the county level, as small businesses tried offloading at its sites.

The issues have since improved, says Rob McCullough, the County of Simcoe's director of solid waste management. However, things intensified over the summer.

“This year, we’ve already moved out 37 per cent more tires than we did at this point last year. So we’ve seen a lot more tires come in. We think part of that has to do with the commercial tire situation in the province, where the small shops weren’t getting service,” he says.

Currently, the Mara Waste Transfer Site on County Road 169 — the closest one for Ramara residents — holds about 1,700 tires.

“The biggest (Simcoe County) site right now has over about 4,000,” says McCullough.

At one point, across the county’s eight sites, there was a mass of over 30,000 used tires. It’s since been reduced to about 15,000.

“We took a report to council and said we are very close to the position where we’re going to have to shut down all tire acceptance at our sites…. because we’re just so badly out of compliance,” McCullough explains.

By limiting each resident to 10 tires and recording addresses for loads that include more than four tires, the issue is nearly resolved, he said.

“We like to help out the commercial businesses, but commercial businesses like tire shops should have their own arrangements for removing the tires,” he says.

The problem for the small shop owner is that once a producer meets its target, anything can happen to the rest of the tires.

Technically, they don’t need to be recycled, which opens a floodgate of issues including but not limited to the consumer paying an environmental fee on each tire, PROs not being able to handle the backlog and haulers losing work.

Ultimately, the used tires at small local shops are left uncollected with no one responsible.

“I’m starting to lose interest (in) whatever happens to the tires,” says O’Donnell.

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Danielle Pitman, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, OrilliaMatters.com.