Saskatchewan based long-standing tyre recycler, Shercom Industries, has decided to close its doors for the last time due to changes in the Tire Stewardship programme
Saskatchewan is a large western Canadian Province covering 251.700 sq miles, with a population of just 1.22 million. Half of the population lives in Saskatoon or Regina, which creates logistical issues for tyre recycling from the more remote areas.
Shercom not only collected tyres and processed them, but it also made end products from the crumb rubber it produced. The change in the Saskatchewan tyre programme has created insurmountable challenges for Shercom. The opening of a CRM plant in Moose Jaw has heightened these. CRM is said to be the USA’s largest producer of crumb rubber, with markets in the rubberised asphalt and artificial turf sectors.
Tyre and Rubber Recycling has visited CRM’s Ontario plant in Brantford, and it is an efficient operation. CEO Barry Takalou is a dedicated player in the field and a member of the TRAC board in Canada.
The Moose Jaw plant is not, at this stage, producing crumb rubber. It is shredding tyres and exporting them, according to news reports.
Shercom’s president, Shane Olson is quoted as saying; “This is a direct result of the direction that the tyre programme is taking with regards to the penalisation of value-added products in this province.”
Olsen adds; ““We can’t even buy crumb rubber from them [CRM] because they’re not making any,” he said. “They are simply taking the tyres from Saskatchewan, shredding them into large chunks and exporting them out of the province.”
Shercom is reported to have had to import crumb rubber to meet the demands for its end products.
Olsen pointed out that Tire Stewardship Saskatchewan (TSS) has a study that supported two processors, but they did not make that public. Shercom used the Freedom of Information Act to access the 22-page report, but, according to Olsen, the report had been 100 per cent redacted and they received 22 blank pages.
This story has been unfolding in the Saskatchewan press for some time, and it has now come to a head. Tyre and Rubber Recycling’s editorial comment on this story is that if a Quango in the UK, or Europe were to 100 per cent redact a document, we are pretty sure that it would raise more questions than it answered.
