New Brunswick is moving to rewrite the rules around what happens to tires after their useful life ends. The province has posted draft amendments to its Designated Materials Regulation that would shift tire recycling toward an extended producer responsibility model and bring off-the-road tires into the regulated system. The change would reach beyond ordinary passenger vehicles, touching tires used in agriculture, forestry, construction and mining.
The proposal is not yet final. Public comments on the draft amendments are being accepted until September 2, 2026, after an earlier modernization consultation was held with stakeholders. If adopted, the overhaul would change who carries the legal and financial responsibility for the program, how recycling costs can appear in prices, and how New Brunswick deals with some of the largest and hardest-to-handle tires in the province.
A Program That Is Already Large
The proposed overhaul is being built on top of a mature provincial system rather than starting from scratch. Recycle NB says the Tire Stewardship Program dates to 1996, while Recycle NB itself took over program management in 2008. Under the present arrangement, consumers can return scrap tires to tire retailers, and collected tires are sent to Tire Recycling Atlantic Canada Corporation, or TRACC, in Minto for processing into new rubber products.
The scale is substantial for a province of New Brunswick’s size. Recycle NB reported 1,477,698 passenger-tire equivalents sold in 2024 and 1,479,127 collected, producing a reported recovery rate of 100.01%. One passenger-tire equivalent represents roughly 10 kilograms. The agency also reported about 700 tire retailers in the province. Those figures help explain why the modernization matters: even a technical change in responsibility can affect a recycling network that already handles well over a million tire equivalents in a year.
Responsibility Would Move Up the Supply Chain
The core policy change is the move to extended producer responsibility, commonly shortened to EPR. Under that approach, responsibility does not end when a tire is sold. Producers are expected to fund and manage the system that handles their products at end of life. New Brunswick’s consultation document says the proposed tire program would follow the same general model used for the province’s other regulated EPR programs.
That would alter the balance between retailers and upstream companies. The province proposes using its hierarchical producer definition, which generally places responsibility first on a Canadian brand holder, then on a New Brunswick importer when no qualifying brand holder exists, and finally on the retailer when neither applies. Producers could appoint a non-profit producer responsibility organization, or PRO, to carry out obligations for them. For tire shops, more compliance responsibility could sit with brand owners and importers rather than the storefront under EPR.
Off-Road Tires Are the Biggest Expansion
The most visible expansion is the proposed inclusion of off-the-road tires. New Brunswick’s current program covers common categories such as passenger, light-truck and medium-truck tires, while oversized and several industrial tire types remain outside the fee-funded recycling stream. The modernization document proposes a broader definition covering pneumatic tires except those intended for machines or devices propelled solely by human or animal power.
That definition is designed to capture tires used in agriculture, forestry, construction and mining. These are not simply larger versions of a car tire. A provincial feasibility study described off-the-road tires as bulky and cumbersome, with transportation and handling becoming increasingly difficult as size and weight rise. The same study cited historical industry estimates of 22,712 off-the-road tires sold in New Brunswick, weighing just over 4.0 million pounds in total. Although those estimates are dated, they illustrate the distinct logistical challenge the new program is meant to address.
A Phase-In Could Prevent a Sudden Logistics Shock
New Brunswick is not proposing that every off-the-road tire enter the system at full scale on day one. The modernization framework says a producer, or a PRO acting for producers, could propose a phased approach for off-the-road tires in its stewardship plan. Recycle NB would have to approve that approach. The purpose is to give the program time to build the financial and operational capacity needed for these harder-to-manage tires.
That flexibility reflects a problem identified before the current draft. Recycle NB’s off-the-road tire feasibility study found that collection equipment used for the regular tire program was not suitable for several large OTR categories because of their size and weight. It identified transportation as a central challenge even where processing capacity could be developed. A phase-in could matter to rural dealers, farms, forestry operators and construction businesses because collection routes, storage, specialized equipment and processing arrangements need to evolve together.
Targets Would Follow the New Tires Into the Program
The proposed system would bring formal performance measurement to the expanded tire stream. New Brunswick’s consultation document says the initial tire stewardship plan, and later plans, would include performance measures and targets for Recycle NB approval. For off-the-road tires, the PRO could propose those measures and targets no later than two years after the added tire categories are implemented.
That detail matters because a recycling program can collect money and move material without necessarily proving how effectively it diverts waste. New Brunswick already publishes collection and recovery information for conventional tires; its 2024 report showed a 100.01% recovery rate based on passenger-tire equivalents. The new framework would put the expanded program into a broader EPR structure where plans address collection systems, processing, rural service, performance measures and environmental impacts. In practical terms, modernization is intended to create an auditable system rather than broaden the list of tires accepted for recycling.
Recycling Fees Could Look Different at the Cash Register
Consumers may notice the overhaul clearly in how recycling costs are built into prices. Today, Recycle NB lists fees of $3 for motorcycle and moped categories, $4.50 for passenger and light-truck tires, and $13.50 for medium-truck tires. Retailers collect and remit charges under the existing tire stewardship structure, while oversized and specified industrial tires are excluded from the fee schedule.
Under the proposed EPR model, the PRO and its producer members would have discretion to determine recycling fees used to recover program costs. If those costs are passed to consumers, New Brunswick’s EPR rules require them to be integrated into the advertised and final sales price rather than presented as a separate pre-total line item. Sellers may still explain that the price includes a recycling cost and disclose the amount afterward. That would change the presentation of the charge even if consumers continue funding some program costs through tire prices.
Recycle NB Would Shift Toward Oversight
The modernization would change Recycle NB’s role. The consultation framework describes Recycle NB as the compliance overseer, while producers and their PRO would design and operate the recycling program within regulatory requirements. The PRO would prepare the stewardship plan, implement it after approval and submit annual reporting. Recycle NB would review the plan, oversee compliance and recover its administrative costs through fees charged to the designated-material program.
That differs from the current tire structure, where Recycle NB directly administers the Tire Stewardship Program and contracts TRACC for collection and processing. The agency’s 2024 report shows what active administration looks like: it completed 37 audits of randomly selected tire retailers, with most compliant or brought into compliance after follow-up. Under EPR, enforcement and auditing would still matter, but more operational decision-making would sit with obligated producers and their chosen organization. Recycle NB would increasingly function as referee rather than program operator.
A Stewardship Plan Becomes the Operating Blueprint
The stewardship plan is what would turn the regulation into an operating system. New Brunswick’s EPR rules require plans to describe province-wide collection, storage, transportation, recycling and processing arrangements, including service to remote or rural areas. They require information about facilities, performance measures, consumer communications, environmental impacts and how existing collection and processing systems will be considered.
For tires, that means producers could not satisfy the proposal by registering and paying an administrative charge. The PRO would have to show Recycle NB how tires will move from return points to an approved end use, including categories that may be expensive to haul from farms, mines or forestry operations. The modernization document says producers would register with Recycle NB, although a PRO could register on their behalf, and the PRO would submit annual reports. This planning requirement matters because New Brunswick’s tire network spans urban retailers and remote commercial users province-wide.
Retailers Could Lose Some Compliance Burden, Not Their Practical Role
For tire dealers, the proposal creates a distinction between legal responsibility and day-to-day involvement. New Brunswick’s producer hierarchy is designed to move the main obligation toward brand holders and importers, rather than leaving it with retailers. That could reduce registration, program-design and reporting responsibilities for independent shops whose principal job is selling and servicing tires rather than administering a province-wide recycling system.
Yet retailers are unlikely to disappear from the collection network. Under the current program, tire suppliers act as depots, and residents can return up to five used tires to a tire retailer without paying another recycling charge at drop-off. Recycle NB reported roughly 700 tire retailers in 2024, making shops a familiar and geographically distributed part of the system. The final stewardship plan will matter to dealers: even if producers carry more regulatory accountability, retailers may remain where consumers encounter the program, store used tires and coordinate pickups.
The Hard Part Is Making Off-Road Recycling Economically Work
The environmental goal is straightforward; the economics are complicated. New Brunswick’s modernization document says the expanded program is intended to divert more tires from regional landfills and illegal dumping. A feasibility study found off-the-road tire stockpiles at all six dealer locations examined and reported that disposal could be costly. One dealer told the study that two large shipments of used OTR tires had each cost the business $20,000 to manage.
The same study found that transportation could be the biggest obstacle because large tires cannot be handled like passenger tires. Earlier industry estimates put annual OTR sales at more than 22,000 tires and more than four million pounds, although those numbers came from older sales data and should not be treated as a current market count. The proposed phase-in and producer-controlled fee structure appear designed to confront that problem: recycling has to be financially sustainable as well as technically possible.
