Q: What is the partnership announced between Tire Stewardship BC and Ocean Legacy Foundation?
A: Tire Stewardship BC is providing a five-year annual grant of $30,000 to Ocean Legacy Foundation. The funding will be used to support Ocean Legacy Foundation clean-up expeditions across British Columbia, diverting waste from landfills and promoting circularity in the waste sector. Additionally, this funding will contribute to infrastructure to properly separate rubber tires from Styrofoam inserts and metal, decreasing the processing efforts to successfully recycle all of the mentioned materials
Q: How much funding will Tire Stewardship BC provide to Ocean Legacy Foundation, and for how long?
A: Tire Stewardship BC is providing a five-year annual grant of $30,000 to Ocean Legacy Foundation.
Q: What is the purpose of the funding provided by Tire Stewardship BC?
A: The funding will allow Ocean Legacy Foundation to assist more communities in physically removing pollution from ecologically sensitive environments, creating cleaner and safer places for wildlife and communities.
Q: What type of clean-up expeditions will Ocean Legacy Foundation carry out with the support of Tire Stewardship BC’s funding?
A: The funding will be used for pollution clean-up expeditions and to remove scrap tire pollution.
Q: What is the significance of Ocean Legacy Foundation’s work in relation to protecting the oceans and combating pollution?
A: Ocean Legacy Foundation develops and implements worldwide programs to respond to plastic pollution, with the goal of ending the plastic pollution crisis. Their comprehensive programming, called EPIC, combines Education, Policy recommendations, Infrastructure development, and restorative Cleanup activities to prevent this pollution from occurring while co-developing solutions to manage the plastic pollution and resources that have already reached the natural environment. The EPIC program provides valuable skill and capacity development with local communities to develop new tools that can be utilized to prevent plastic pollution and protect their local environment.
Q: Could you provide an example of a successful tire clean-up operation conducted by Ocean Legacy Foundation?
A: In 2022, alongside Let’s Talk Trash and other local groups and contractors, Ocean Legacy Foundation removed over 2,400 scrap tires from a small island off the Sunshine Coast of B.C. The tires were then sent to a tire recycling facility in Delta B.C. This is one example of how Ocean Legacy Foundation and Tire Stewardship BC will continue to work together to clean up more of the province, maximize landfill potential and help to restore critical habitat.
Q: How has Tire Stewardship BC’s scrap tire recycling program contributed to the circular economy in British Columbia?
A: Tire Stewardship BC’s scrap tire recycling program is one of the most successful in North America and the oldest tire recycling program in Canada. Since the program was first established in 1991, over 100 million tires have been recycled, and every year the equivalent of over five million scrap vehicle tires are recycled into new products like playground surfaces, athletic tracks, horse mats and garden mulch. Tire Stewardship BC also continues to work with its recycler and partners to support the use of recycled rubber back into the manufacturing of new tires.
Tire Stewardship BC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tiresbc/?hl=en
Twitter: @TiresBC
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TiresBC
Ocean Legacy Foundation
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoceanlegacy/?hl=en
Twitter: @OceanLegacy_ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oceanlegacy
Rubber tires — a dirty business
The booming global tire market is worth billions – but this comes at a high price, both to humans and the environment. Over 50 million car tires are sold each year in Germany alone. But where does the natural rubber for them come from?
The biggest producer of natural rubber for tires is Thailand. More than four million tonnes of rubber are harvested annually in plantations there. And demand for rubber is ever growing – because ever more tires are needed. But the labor conditions in Southeast Asia are harsh – with working days of up to 12 hours and very low wages. In addition, toxic herbicides banned in Europe are used to fight weeds on the plantations. After the harvest, the ‘white gold’ rubber is sold to brokers, who, in turn, sell it on. German tire manufacturers, like Continental, for example, are keen to stress that they use “natural commodities conscientiously.” But many car drivers don’t give a second thought about where the rubber in their tires comes from – and why we don’t recycle used tires more effectively.
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