FAQ

​Please visit this link: https://www.halifax.ca/home-property/garbage-recycling-green-cart/recycling

Sorted acceptable wood waste is chipped to 3 inch minus and sent to Brooklyn Power Corporation to produce steam for the Bowater Pulp Mill. This is the largest biomass power producer in Nova Scotia.

Two products come from recycled asphalt shingles. The asphalt sand is used to make hot mix Asphalt Pavement used by Ocean Contractors . This innovative recycled product was used on over 90% of the road system in Dartmouth Crossing

Mixed debris is processed to a mulch to create a manufactured cover for landfills and is used at Otter Lake, where it is most useful due to lack of soil on-site.

In 2009 Halifax C&D was awarded a contract to process all of Nova Scotia’s used tires into a valuable shredded tire product known as Tire Derived Aggregate (TDA).
To conserve landfill space and reduce environmental hazards every year, more than 1.2 million worn out tires are collected from tire retailers across Nova Scotia and processed by Halifax C&D.

Asphalt shingle flake is produced from asphalt paper and is used by LaFarge Cement to replace coal. The asphalt shingle flake burns more cleanly than coal, without the harmful emissions.

Clean gyprock is sorted, de-papered and processed to desired specifications, which gets trucked to in McAdam New Brunswick to make new wallboard at the Certainteed Gyproc Plant

Materials are separated and glass is processed to make septic sand, which has been approved by the Nova Scotia Department of the Environment.

Metal is sorted from materials and recycled locally.

The Tire Recycling Facility is located at 16 Mills Drive, immediately adjacent to the Halifax C & D Recycling Yard in Goodwood, Nova Scotia.

The Tire Recycling Facility operates Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. – 5 p.m. and weekends as required.

The Tire Recycling Facility is about 5.5 acres.

Shortly after arriving on-site, the tires are inspected. They are then processed through an industry-proven shredder that mechanically shears them.

This process does not produce heat, dust or other air emissions; the high capacity shredder is very efficient and can shred all tires received within four to eight hours of their arrival at the site.

The shredder is calibrated to produce pieces of shred ranging from 25mm to 300 mm (1 inch to 12 inches) in size in accordance with ASTM D6270 specifications for Tire Derived Aggregate (TDA). TDA is used for civil engineering projects throughout Nova Scotia. It is also worth noting that the tire shredding process requires neither heat nor chemical breakdown procedure, which helps to eliminate potential sources of fire.

In September 2008 a Nova Scotia provincial government committee completed an evaluation of options for recycling scrap tires produced in the province. The committee looked closely at past experiences, public attitudes and acceptance and undertook consultation with North American experts. The government also examined the current longterm sustainable practices for scrap tire management. Based upon this evaluation, the interdepartmental committee recommended that manufacturing Tire-Derived Aggregate (TDA) was the best management option for scrap tires. The TDA solution filled a genuine demand, is environmentally sound, and offers a reasonable economic opportunity for a skilled operator.

In the spring of 2009 looking for a “Made in Nova Scotia option”, the Resource Recovery Fund Board (RRFB) issued a Request for Proposal for processing used tires in Nova Scotia.

Halifax C&D Recycling Ltd. became aware of the proposal through the pubic tendering process and formed a team to evaluate the requirements for meeting the terms of the proposal and setting up a commercially viable operation.

The proposal submission required a detailed business plan to ensure the operation would meet the present and future needs for the period of the contract. As well, it required that the proponent identify the major risks and liabilities associated with the operation and make commitments to mitigate the risks in the activity.

The Halifax C&D Limited team consisted of company management, Stantec Consulting and Dr. Bruce Taylor, a national expert on the evaluation of scrap tire processing.

The team conducted a thorough review of the risks associated with processing the one million scrap tires produced in Nova Scotia each year for TDA. The result was a concept for a modern, custom designed facility located within the Halifax Regional Municipality where most of the scrap tires are produced.

The concept plan was prepared based upon the recycling/materials handling (including Safe Work Practices) expertise of Halifax C&D, the risks known to exist as defined by Dr. Taylor and the system engineering requirements identified by Stantec Consulting.

The design approach was developed to be safe, minimize all risk and produce a high quality product TDA product for the market place and maximize efficiency of operations.

The tire shredding process is done inside a building and produces no dust or other on-site air emissions – other than those air emissions produced by regular equipment and truck operations at the site.

No chemicals or hazardous materials are used during, or generated by, the tire shredding process. All traffic areas and outdoors storage areas are paved with asphalt and the asphalt surface are free of debris and aggregate materials to minimize dust.

There is no measurable leachate from the small volume of whole tires or tire derived aggregate (TDA) at the tire recycling facility. Nonetheless, the Tire Recycling Facility has implemented mitigation measures including run-off containment and testing prior to release offsite.

The potential for tire derived aggregate (TDA) to generate leachate has been extensively examined. Numerous scientific investigations have determined that off-site water quality effects of TDA are negligible.

The Tire Recycling Facility is located on an 8.5-acre site that has been zoned as an industrial site for the past 30 years with no issues.

As well, traditional flow patterns in the area actually run away from the Drysdale Bog.

There is also a 1.5 million-litre reservoir that, acts as a control buffer, which captures sediments as it leaves the site.

There is also greater control over the surface water quality direction with the 5.5 acres of asphalt surface now on site. It also helps to eliminate dust and reduce suspended solids in any surface water runoff.

Finally, testing of surface water runoff and groundwater is carried out to comply with regulatory requirements and to ensure no unanticipated negative water quality affects the bog.

Because the shredder operates in an enclosed building, it does not contribute any noise to the surrounding environment. Truck traffic at the Tire Recycling Facility is limited and does not contribute significantly to the overall sound emissions from the area.

There is an increase of about 3 to 8 trucks per day depending on the season. This volume increase is relatively small in comparison to previous operations at the site. This is relatively light, compared to past truck traffic. Historically, five major oil companies operated from the site, which was an offshore drilling equipment storage yard for 20 years. An average of 15 to 20 large trucks per day moved in and out of that facility for those two decades.

The Tire Recycling Facility was designed with fire prevention as its first priority. An overall Fire Safety Plan, created by a fire prevention engineer, and approved by the Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Services, is in place.

A 7 ft. high security fence is the initial line of defense. To further minimize the risk of an arson fire, a security guard is on-site whenever the regular workforce is not on-site. Training of site personnel, on-going safety and emergency response meetings, as well as on-going and effective consultation with local fire response agencies is also carried out.

All activities and storage meet national fire code standards. The facility also has measures beyond the code in case of a fire. If a fire were to occur, the facility has on-site equipment and personnel to respond before fire trucks would arrive. From anywhere in the yard, there is enough on-site capability to attack more than one fire quickly. Specifically, staff can respond immediately from a water reservoir and pump house maintained beside the tires. Further measures created include a soil stockpile, a supply of on-site fire suppressant material and application equipment.

As well, any fire would be noticed without delay as security cameras and security personnel are in place as an early warning system.

Proactive site measures such as ensuring adequate clearances between storage areas with buildings and property lines and constructing concrete separation barriers between storage areas have all been included to stop a fire before it starts.

The facility is also designed to process tires into shred upon arrival. Only a limited amount of whole tires are stored at the site at any given time.

Storage bunkers for both whole tires and shred are located on an impermeable asphalt surface with three-meter high concrete separation barriers in place to reduce the risk of fire spreading between storage units.

The Halifax Tire Recycling Facility employs seven full-time and three part-time employees.

TDA has many uses, and its greatest potential in Nova Scotia is for lightweight engineering fill. This product is a cost-effective alternative for engineering applications when the ground is unable to support the weight of gravel.

TDA is an ideal substitute because it is half the weight and provides excellent drainage. TDA’s low density and high permeability also give it an advantage as a “backfill” for retaining walls and bridge abutments. It is also useful as construction backfill, and in landfill cells, where it enhances drainage and gas collection.

As well, TDA is well understood and an international standard for its application exists. Where manufactured to specification and used in the right applications and engineered according to its engineering properties, it does not present any hazard to the environment.

Safety features are many include:

• Constructing an entirely new custom processing facility on approved industrial lands
• Paving the entire facility area to provide clean surfaces for the storage of the processed TDA material
• Inspecting all incoming whole tires to sort and remove any materials (rims, debris, oil or other contaminants) that would injuriously affect the processing machinery and/or quality of the TDA product
• Providing sufficient space for TDA processing/storage and using it efficiently to maximize safety and operational efficiency

  * Treating possible fires as the highest operational risk and mitigating all potential threats

• Processing all whole tires received daily into TDA since it is a significantly lower risk for fire
• Building multiple TDA heavy concrete block wall containment cells that are separated by wide fire lanes
• Having multiple and robust fire suppression technologies and strategies available for use
• Developing a fire plan and reviewing it with the municipal fire and emergency services
• Having 24 hour, 7 day a week site security for comprehensive supervision of the whole facility
• Having excess whole tire processing capacity to exceed anticipated scrap tire processing volumes daily
• Installing a surface water (fire retention) reservoir with excess capacity for potential fire suppression that also collects all site run-off. In the event of a fire incident it enables collection and storage of impacted fire fighting runoff
• Training staff on safe and efficient operations