Processors Update • • • • • PER MA LIFE EXPA N D S This year Permalife Products Canada, was successful in signing a distribution agreement with Federated Co-operative Ltd that put “Permalife Mulch” (landscaping mulch) and SoftStuff (playground safety surface) into over 30 Co-op stores in western Canada. This has been very successful and we will be expanding this program to all Co-op stores in Canada for 2008. Permalife has also worked very closely with a number of municipalities and has provided, “Mulch”, “SoftStuff ” and/or “Pour & Play” in a wide variety of colours, to 16 parks and playgrounds throughout the province. Permalife signed an agreement with one of Western Canada’s largest playground equipment suppliers to provide our product to their customers. This allowed for our “Pour & Play” (playground surface) to be installed at two major parks (one completed and one pending) for the City of Winnipeg. Permalife provided the rubber needed for the installation of the new “FieldTurf ” football field at Mosaic
Return undeliverable copies to: Saskatchewan Scrap Tire Corporation PO Box 1936 Regina SK S4P 3E1
SHERCOM I NDUSTRI E S GOES I NTERNATI ONAL
Stadium, for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. It is the only Western Canadian supplier that meets “FieldTurf ” specifications. Permalife was again successful in working with the Department of Highways in providing the rubber needed for two major paving projects. The first one was through Chamberlain and the second one was on #1 Highway near the Alberta border. These two paving projects consumed roughly 35,000 tires. The company also provided over 1 million lbs. of rubber to U.S. based asphalt projects. Permalife products have met all criteria and were accepted as part of the “Shell Busey’s House Smart” referral network and the landscaping Mulch is being used by Shell Busey at his own home in Surrey, B.C. Permalife is looking at a number of new products for our 2008 season but final decisions have not been made yet. The company is planning an expansion (over the winter) of our colouring facility so we can keep up with the anticipated 2008 orders.
This year in particular has seen Shercom Industries interact in a significant way with the international community, both in meeting their staffing needs and in new business development. On the staffing side, they are proud to have added team members from China, Ukraine, Burma, Pakistan and Sudan. As the company grows, reaching out to the international community for new employees has proven effective and beneficial both for Shercom and those new Canadians wanting to establish a life here. On the business side, Shercom has had visitors from Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, Chili, France, Germany and Japan in recent months, all seeking some form of product Shercom makes from Saskatchewan tires. This international recognition and participation would not have been possible without the past and continuing support of the Saskatchewan people, and Shercom is very thankful for it. Since 1993, Shercom Industries has been in the business of tire recycling and millions of pounds of scrap tires have been converted into value added product and put to beneficial end use.
ISSUE 3
FALL 2007
TREADS •
Re-tire Reclaim Recycle
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Recycled Tires Used in Major Highway Paving Projects
HI G HWAY S 1 A ND 11 G E T FA CE L IF T WI T H RUBBE R A SP HALT Drivers on two of the province’s busiest highways may notice something different on the road beneath their wheels this fall – rubber asphalt made from recycled Saskatchewan scrap tires. Twenty kilometers of the Trans Canada Highway near the Alberta border have been repaved with rubber asphalt in the eastbound driving lanes. On Highway 11 between Regina and Saskatoon, four kilometers through Chamberlain and eight kilometers near Davidson were also repaved using the innovative material.
“It’s great for the environment, it’s great for the economy, it’s great for the province.” The use of recycled tire products is becoming increasingly popular in municipal street construction projects, as well. A number of Saskatchewan communities have repaired particularly troublesome streets by including a layer
Studies indicate that rubber asphalt can have as much as a 30-year life cycle compared to 15 years for conventional asphalt. In addition, research shows there is reduced cracking and rutting in the road surface with rubber asphalt, due to its increased flexibility under different climates. The product has also been found to reduce road noise over conventional paving material. “The Saskatchewan Scrap Tire Corporation is pleased to see more and more rubber asphalt projects like this,” said SSTC Chairman Don Schlosser. “It’s another great example of how recycling tires has advantages beyond keeping the material out of the landfill.
Rubber Asphalt on Highway 11
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of “tire chips” in the road base, especially where soft spots or poor drainage are an ongoing concern and spring frost boils are a recurring problem. “Communities that have had annual issues with pavement break-ups on certain problem streets are reporting excellent results from the use of tire chips in the road bed,” Schlosser said. More information on the practice can be found on the website of Saskatoonarea tire processor Shercom Industries at www.shercomindustries.com. Interest is also being shown in the prospect of using rubber asphalt to pave
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New Payment System Good for Tire Recycling • • • • • A new payment system introduced this summer will make business considerably easier for Saskatchewan tire processors and the Saskatchewan Scrap Tire Corporation. “The SSTC has always paid ‘recycling incentives’ to our essential partners involved in the delivery of the scrap tire recycling program in this province, including the tire processors who take the old treads and break them down into reusable component parts like crumb rubber or shred,” said SSTC Executive Director Theresa McQuoid. The payment system employed in the past involved tracking each tire through various phases of the recycling process and paying a certain amount depending on what was done with the tire. This required some fairly onerous monitoring and reporting on behalf of the processors, and a considerable amount of paperwork for all involved.
system” was proposed by the SSTC this summer and implemented following consultations with provincial processors. The front-end system pays a single, flat recycling incentive on all tires as they are received by the processor. This amount is intended to be all-inclusive, fully covering all processing and manufacturing activity that takes place with the scrap tire once it is delivered to the processor. The new incentive structure is the only major change made to the program. All necessary health, safety and environmental safeguards remain in place to govern scrap tire handling and
processing. Processors must still comply with prescribed standards and provincial regulations regarding approved activities and end-uses for the tires, and are limited in the number of treads they can have in inventory at any one time. Fees will also continue to be payable only on tires collected in the province in accordance with program guidelines. “The front-end payment system is a great innovation for the SSTC and our important program partners,” McQuoid said. “It’s a much simpler and more straightforward approach, reducing the administrative burden on both the processors and the SSTC. It gets the incentive payments into the hands of the processors much earlier in the recycling process to more closely match their cost cycles. And it reduces our involvement in their business operations, something that’s been long overdue.”
The Saskatchewan Scrap Tire Corporation provided 12 communities with almost $25,000 through its 2007 Community Demonstration Grant Program. The program is aimed at encouraging communities to undertake projects that make use of recycled tire products, in order to help develop a self-sustaining market for these materials within the province. It provides support for “pilot projects” that serve as examples to other communities across Saskatchewan through matching grants of up to $5,000. This year, funding was awarded for initiatives in Strasbourg, Battleford, Kelvington, Maidstone, Eston, Craik, Osler, Mossbank, Churchbridge, Carrot River, Imperial and Wawota.
Recycled Tires used in Major Highway Paving Projects continued from front page
build one of the most successful tire recycling programs in all of Canada.”
parking lots. “As a former mayor, I can tell you how difficult it is to keep paved parking lots in a community free of cracks and ruts,” Schlosser said.
The Community Demonstration Grant Program is open to all Saskatchewan municipalities, registered non-profit organizations/community groups, schools, and First Nations and Métis settlements.
“So this is something that’s going to be looked at and researched. Much like with highways, there may be a good opportunity here to extend the lifespan of the paved surface and reduce maintenance costs.”
McQuoid expects the SSTC will be offering the program again in 2008. All interested parties are advised to visit the organization’s website at www.scraptire.sk.ca for more information, as well as examples of recycled tire products currently being manufactured in the province.
More than a million scrap tires are generated in Saskatchewan each year. The tires are collected, processed and recycled through the program run by the SSTC. In total, the Highway 1 and Highway 11 paving projects used about 39,000 recycled scrap tires.
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The projects selected vary by community, but each one incorporates recycled tire products like rubber paving stones, crumb rubber for playground surfaces or mulch for public green spaces into its design.
“It also meant that the incentive payments only flowed to processors well after they incurred their costs for processing, which was less than ideal,” McQuoid noted. “Furthermore, it required the SSTC to become far more involved in the business operations of the processors than we certainly wanted to be.” As a result, a new “front-end payment
12 Communities Receive Funding from SSTC • • • • •
“This program is a terrific way to demonstrate some of the many recycled tire products that are available on the market today,” said SSTC Executive Director Theresa McQuoid. “It’s also a great way for the Scrap Tire Corporation to give back to the people of Saskatchewan who have helped us
SSTC billboard put up near Mosaic Stadium
Riders Roll on Recycled Rubber In the last edition of the “Treads” newsletter, we told you about the new turf at Mosaic Stadium that is made from 18,000 recycled Saskatchewan scrap tires.
Saskatchewan crumb rubber being installed on Taylor Field
After seven home games playing on the new state-of-the-
art surface, the Roughriders posted a 5-2 record. The players are said to love the new turf, and so do the trainers – in-game injuries at Mosaic Stadium appear to be down over previous years. “The Saskatchewan Scrap Tire
Corporation was very excited to be part of the Riders’ new playing surface,” said SSTC Executive Director Theresa McQuoid. “For Saskatchewan residents, it’s a very visible illustration of some of the good things that
Examples of program projects
come from tire recycling, and a great example of the innovative types of products currently being made from recycled tires.” A Montreal-based company, FieldTurf, installed the new playing surface. The tires used in the field were processed at the
PermaLife plant in Assiniboia. More information on the Mosaic Stadium project can be found on the SSTC website at www.scraptire.sk.ca. Details on the innovative turf made from recycled scrap tires can be found at www.permalife.com.