Stirling, Ontario — June 6, 2011 — Representatives from OARA, the Ontario Tire Steward, Liberty Tire and the local media met in Stirling, ON on June 6 to present a cheque for than $123,000 to the Sunshine Foundation. The money comes from this year’s Tire Take Back Program, which all involved say was an outstanding success.
Ontario recyclers, over the course of two days in May, collected 48,000 tires, completely eclipsing last year’s numbers.
Shirley Veley from Sunshine’s Kingston, ON chapter says the foundation is absolutely thrilled with the results and the work of Ontario’s recyclers. “We have so many kids waiting for their dreams and $123,000 can go a long way.” The foundation will use the money to make dreams come true for children with severe physical disability and life threatening illnesses.
As well, Steve Fletcher, executive director of OARA, says program such as Tire Take Back, while do great work for charity, can do a lot of raise the profile of auto recyclers among the public and government at all levels. “We have very positive stories of members engaging with their councillors or their mayors of the regional government to demystify what happens at an auto recyclers.” He adds, “At the provincial level it demonstrates to government that we’re a responsible industry and we can get things happening.”
Woodbeck Auto Parts had the pleasure of hosting the cheque presentation because they collected more tires than any other recycling facility in the province. Greg Woodbeck credited OARA with creating the flyers and promotional materials that were then handed and posted around the Stirling community. Woodbeck said the large farming community came out in full force to support the event.
“They were firstly taken that they get to get rid of those five or six or ten old tires that I had but then what they realized was what they were bringing in was actually money for a very good cause,” says Woodbeck, who’s family-run business collected 4,011 tires.
All the tires collected during the event are handled by Liberty Tire Recycling and processed at its plant in Brantford, ON. Peter Hutley from Liberty explained that most of the tires are turned into crumbs rubber, which provides infill for sports fields, and paving for running tracks and equestrian surfaces. As well, the rubber is reused in welcome mats, portable speed bumps, railroad ties, and many other products.
