New regulation under the Environmental Assessment Act which allows Ellsin Environmental to increase the quantity of tires they can thermally treat daily at their Sault Ste. Marie facility

Ellsin Environmental Ltd. (Ellsin) proposes to increase the maximum amount of tire waste thermally treated at its Sault Ste. Marie facility (located at 155 Yates Street), from 10 tonnes to 20 tonnes per day.

The 2018 Environmental Screening Report completed by Ellsin determined that the potential environmental effects from increasing the treatment rate to 20 tonnes per day are similar to the existing environmental effects from the 10 tonnes per day facility, since there will be no new infrastructure and the facility footprint will remain the same.

If the regulation is approved, Ellsin would need amendments to their existing air and waste Environmental Compliance Approvals, to allow for the increase while maintaining environmental protection.

Purpose of the Project

Ellsin’s Sault Ste. Marie facility uses microwave radiation to thermally treat tire waste and turn them into materials such as:

• carbon black (for mixing with recycled plastic to make black plastic concentrate);
• scrap steel;
• syngas; and,
• oil.

Exemption Considerations

If the proposed exemption regulation is approved, it would expedite the approval process for the increase in the maximum thermal treatment rate to 20 tonnes per day at the Sault Ste. Marie facility.

Ellsin’s Sault Ste. Marie Site is located in an industrialized area near Algoma Steel and its operation is already regulated by several permits and approvals, including Environmental Compliance Approvals for air, noise, and waste.

The ministry recognizes that Ellsin completed an assessment of environmental effects from the operation of a commercial facility treating 20 tonnes per day of tire waste in 2018 as part of an Environmental Screening Process. Given this previous work, an exemption from additional environmental assessment requirements is being proposed.

The potential environmental effects from the facility’s operation are associated with:

• contaminant emissions to the atmosphere from the thermal treatment of tire waste and production of black plastic concentrate, and associated equipment;
• noise emissions from the site;
• storage of tire waste received at the site; and,
• storage of recovered materials and residual waste generated from thermal treatment and associated processes.

While the thermal treatment of tires generates greenhouse gases, the proposal has the potential to offset greenhouse gas emissions associated with manufacturing of products by replacing virgin raw materials with outputs from the thermal treatment of the tire waste or through use as an alternative source of energy. Ellsin is also looking at the opportunity to generate electricity with the syngas produced from the thermal treatment process.

This proposal is being considered in the context of the government’s Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan commitment for supporting the use of advanced recycling and energy recovery technologies that can help ensure valuable resources, such as hard-to-recycle plastics, do not end up in landfill.

Implementation and timelines

If made, the proposed regulation would come into effect on a date specified in the regulation.

Ellsin will be required to obtain amended environmental compliance approvals from the ministry prior to thermally treating more than 10 tonnes per day of tire waste at the facility.