Tire Stewardship BC and Ocean Legacy Foundation announce partnership to remove scrap tire pollution across B.C.

Written By Bridget Irwin

VICTORIA, BC (June 22, 2023) – Tire Stewardship BC (TSBC), an environmental not-for-profit group dedicated to the collection and recycling of scrap tires in British Columbia, today announced that they are providing a five-year annual grant of $30,000 to Ocean Legacy Foundation (OLF). The funding will be used to support OLF scrap tire clean-up expeditions across British Columbia. 

“Ocean Legacy Foundation is an important partner of ours and we’re delighted to offer them our support over a multi-year period,” said Rosemary Sutton, Executive Director, Tire Stewardship BC. “They’re doing important work to protect our oceans, combat pollution in our communities, and divert waste from landfills. For example, in 2022, OLF and partners removed over 2,400 scrap tires from a small island off the Sunshine Coast of B.C., and the tires were sent to a tire recycling facility in Delta, B.C. Our scrap tire recycling program is one of the most successful in North America and the oldest 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 is recycled into new products.”

Ocean Legacy Foundation, initiated in 2013, is a Canadian non-profit organization that develops and implements worldwide programs to respond to plastic pollution, with the goal of ending the plastic pollution crisis. They combine 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 exists. The EPIC program provides valuable skill and community capacity development with local communities to develop new tools that can be utilized to prevent plastic pollution and protect their local environment. 

“Ocean Legacy Foundation is the only organization that accepts foam-filled tires from beach cleanups and dock deconstructions. They remove the foam from the tires and then we’re able to recycle them. Prior to their help with the foam removal, these tires ended up in our landfills,” added Sutton. “What is also great about our partnership with Ocean Legacy Foundation and these clean-up expeditions is that the scrap tires that are collected in B.C. are also processed and re-purposed in the province, contributing to the circular economy.”

“This funding will allow us to assist more communities in physically removing pollution from ecologically sensitive environments so that we can create cleaner and safer places for wildlife and communities,” said Chloé Dubois, Executive Director, Ocean Legacy Foundation. “Together with Tire Stewardship BC and community partners, we look forward to cleaning up more of this beautiful province, maximizing landfill potential and helping to restore critical habitat.”

To learn more about Tire Stewardship BC, visit https://tsbc.ca/. To learn more about Ocean Legacy Foundation, visit https://oceanlegacy.ca/ 

About Tire Stewardship BC

Tire Stewardship BC is a not-for-profit society formed to accept responsibility for the provincial scrap tires recycling program. Tire Stewardship BC was founded in 2003 by the Tire & Rubber Association of Canada, The Retail Council of Canada, and the Western Canada Tire Dealers, with the addition of the New Car Dealers Association of BC in 2007, and it continues to be governed by a Board that is made up of representatives from these four organizations. Tire Stewardship BC focuses on collecting scrap vehicle and bike tires and recycling them into new things including playground surfaces, athletic tracks, horse mats, and garden mulch. Since 1991, over 100 million tires have been recycled in B.C.

About Ocean Legacy Foundation


Initiated in 2013, Ocean Legacy Foundation (OLF) is a Canadian, internationally recognized, non-profit organization that develops and implements worldwide plastic pollution response programs, with the goal to end plastic pollution. OLF combines sustainable technologies, education, and skills training to convert plastic pollution into economic value while providing local communities with the tools they need to prevent plastic pollution and protect their local environment. 

EPIC Academy is part of the OLF’s EPIC Plastic Pollution Emergency Response™ program, which takes a  four-pillar approach to identify, cleanup, and prevent plastic waste from entering tributary and marine  ecosystems. The four pillars are Education & Research, Policy & Advocacy, Infrastructure Development, and Cleanup & Restoration (“EPIC”). The purpose of EPIC is to create an accessible platform to assist with the restoration of critical natural ecosystems for improved human and wildlife health, as well as assess  and develop long-term plastic collection, processing infrastructure and policy to mitigate oceanic plastic  pollution sources. We have collected over two million pounds of plastic waste from over 1000 kilometres  of shoreline around the world and have engaged hundreds of thousands of individuals in plastic  pollution cleanup, education, and recycling activities. For more information visit www.oceanlegacy.ca.

Media Contact:
Kari Kylo

Kari@somaworks.com

(604) 889-8057

Bridget Irwin
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