Frequently Asked Questions

Here are the lists of registered PROs:

Tire PROs

Battery PROs

EEE PROs

Blue Box PROs

Hazardous and Special Products PROs

These lists will continue to be updated as new PROs register with RPRA.

New tires are supplied into Ontario in two ways – on new vehicles or as loose tires. In both cases, section 3 of the Tires Regulation defines tire producers in accordance with a hierarchy based on residency in Ontario, which means a person having a permanent establishment in Ontario within the meaning of the Corporations Tax Act:

For new loose tires that are marketed to consumers in Ontario
For new tires in Ontario: you are the producer for those new tires if you are the brand holder of the new tires (the legislation defines brand holder to mean a person who owns or licenses a brand or who otherwise has rights to market a product under the brand) and resident in Ontario.

For new tires where there is no brand holder resident in Ontario: you are the producer for the new tires if you are the importer of those new tires and resident in Ontario.

For new tires where there is no brand holder or importer resident in Ontario: you are the producer for the new tires if you are the first person to market those tires in Ontario and resident in Ontario.

For new tires where there is no brand holder, importer or marketer resident in Ontario: you are the producer for the new tires if you are the person that marketed those new tires and non-resident in Ontario.

For new vehicles with tires that are marketed to consumers in Ontario
For new vehicles in Ontario: you are the producer for the new tires on those new vehicles if you are the manufacturer of the vehicles (the legislation defines vehicle to include motor vehicles, muscular-powered equipment and trailers) and resident in Ontario.

For new vehicles where there is no manufacturer resident in Ontario: you are the producer for the new tires on those new vehicles if you are the importer of those new vehicles and resident in Ontario.

For new vehicles where there is no manufacturer or importer resident in Ontario: you are the producer for the new tires on those new vehicles if you are the marketer of those new vehicles in Ontario and resident in Ontario.

For new vehicles where there is no manufacturer, importer or marketer resident in Ontario: you are the producer for the new tires on those new vehicles if you are the marketer of those new vehicles and non-resident in Ontario.

If you are required to pay a fee during registration or when you are providing an annual data report for Batteries, Tires, and/or Electronics you can select from one of the following payment methods:

• Bank withdrawal (pre-authorized debit)
• Credit card
• Electronic data interchange (EDI)
• Electronic bill
• Cheque

If you are required to pay a fee during manual registration for Blue Box and/or Hazardous and Special Products, you can select from one of the following payment methods:

• Electronic data interchange (EDI)
• Electronic bill
• Cheque

Instructions for submitting your payment are provided during the registration process.

We recommend using Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge or Apple Safari when accessing the Registry. If you are experiencing an issue with the Registry, try updating the browser to the latest version.

If you are using a different browser, the Registry will not function.

You should use the address where you carry on business. If you carry on business in more than one location in Ontario, use the main address for your business in Ontario. If you do not have an Ontario address, use the address that relates to the activities you carry out in Ontario.

You are a tire collector if you operate a tire collection site where more than 1000 kgs of tires are collected in a year. A tire collection site is a location where used tires are collected, including:

• Repair shops, garages and vehicle dealerships (where used tires are collected as part of changing tires for customers)
• Auto salvage and recycling sites
• Any other site where end-of-life vehicles with tires are managed

You are not a tire collector if you operate a tire collection site where you:

• Also retread tires or process tires (you would be a tire retreader or a tire processor for those sites); or
• Only collect tires from the on-site servicing of vehicles that you own or operate (such as a site where you service your rental car fleet)

Municipalities can choose to operate collection sites, but they are exempt from registering with RPRA. For more information about municipal sites see: How does the Tires Regulation affect municipalities and First Nations?

You are a tire processor if you receive and process tires for resource recovery or disposal. Processing means you are transforming tires into their constituent parts, including by shredding, chipping, grinding, cutting or cryogenic crushing. You are also a tire processor if you engage in activities to chemically alter tires, such as depolymerization.

You are a tire retreader if you replace the tread on worn tires so that they can continue to be used as tires.

You are a tire hauler if you transport tires in Ontario to a site for processing, reuse, retreading or disposal.

Yes. Producers are required to, at a minimum, publish and clearly display the following information on their website:

1. The locations of the producer’s tire collection sites, for each tire type, where consumers may return tires at no charge. (This can done by directing people to the Authority’s Find a Collection Site map)
2.  A description of any collection services provided by the producer that are available other than at a tire collection site.
3.  A description of the resource recovery activities engaged in by the producer in the course of managing the producer’s collected tires.

As a producer, you may also be retailer, you can choose to charge a fee on the sale of new tires in Ontario to recover the costs associated with end of life collection and management. If you choose to charge a fee, such as a resource recovery fee or a tire handling fee, it may be added to the price of the product, or charged as a visible fee. You must be honest about what the visible fee is for and the amount cannot be arbitrary. A visible fee cannot be referred to as a tax.

Yes. PROs are private enterprises and charge for their services to producers.

Each commercial contract a producer enters with a PRO will have its own set of terms and conditions. It is up to the PRO and producer to determine the terms of their contractual agreement, including fees and payment schedule.

RPRA does not set the terms of the contractual arrangements between PROs and producers.

No, producers are not required to sign up with a PRO to meet their regulatory requirements. It is a business decision if a producer chooses to work with a PRO, and a producer can choose to meet their obligations without a PRO.

Most producers will choose to contract with a PRO to provide collection, hauling, processing, retreading and/or refurbishing services to achieve their collection and management requirements unless they carry out these activities themselves.

No. A PRO cannot report on behalf of service providers.

Yes. Producers and service providers can enter into contractual agreements with multiple PROs.

No. Section 68 subsection (3) of the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act states that “a person responsible for establishing and operating a collection system shall ensure that no charge is imposed at the time of the collection.”

Producers will be required to pay a program fee as part of the registration process, which supports the Authority’s operations. Program fees cover the Authority’s costs related to building and operating the electronic Registry, and compliance and enforcement activities.

For more information, refer to the 2022 RRCEA Program Fee Schedule for Batteries, Blue Box, ITT/AV, HSP, Lighting, and Tires.

You may be required to provide an audit report for the annual tire supply report.  You will be required to provide an audit or verification if you meet the definition of a medium or large producer. Small producers will not be required to submit an audit report, however a percentage of small producers selected annually by the Registrar will be subject to an inspection procedure. For more information on this, read RPRA’s Tire Supply Audit Procedure.

Tire Collection Requirements
The minimum tire collection requirements are calculated based on a rolling average of three years of tire supply data multiplied by 0.85 to account for tire wear. Section 4(2) of the Tires Regulation describes the formula used.

Tire Resource Recovery Requirements
Producers must ensure that 85% of the tires they collected in a year, by weight, were reused, retreaded or turned into processed materials and made into products and packaging as described in section 11 of the Tires Regulation.

Any producer who collects tires in a calendar year, despite being exempt from the collection requirements under section 4(7) of the Tires Regulation, is required to manage those tires (through reuse, retreading or processing) in accordance with section 11(6) of the Tires Regulation.

To register as a PRO, contact the Compliance and Registry Team at registry@rpra.ca or call 647-496-0530 or toll-free 1-833-600-0530.

The Tires Regulation states that at least one collection site or event per year is required in a territorial district with a population of 1,000 or more. Read Compliance Bulletin – Tire Collection Systems for more information.

Yes. However, the collection site may only allow up to 10 tires from a person in a single day to be dropped off. If the site is willing to accept more than 10 tires at a time, the site operator is required to record the municipality’s name, contact information, and the number of tires being dropped off. If a municipality chooses not to operate any tire collection sites, residents can be directed to a registered collector.

Contact the Authority’s Compliance and Registry Team at registry@rpra.ca, 647-496-0530 or toll free at 1-833-600-0530 if you or your residents have any issues dropping off less than 10 tires to a registered collector’s site.

As a retailer, you may also be a producer and/or a collector, based on the definitions in the Tires Regulation.

Promotion and education requirements will have to be met under section 13 of the Tires Regulation, if you have a website. This includes clearly displaying on the website:

• that the consumer may return tires to the site at no charge, if the retailer is a collection site; or
• the locations of tire collection sites near each retail location, if the retailer is not a collection site

Retailers can choose whether to charge a fee on the sale of new tires in Ontario to recover the costs associated with end of life collection and management. If you choose to charge a fee, such as a resource recovery fee or a tire handling fee, it may be added to the price of the product or charged as a visible fee. Businesses must be honest about what the fee is for and the amount cannot be arbitrary. A visible fee cannot be referred to as a tax.

Contact the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks for any information about Environmental Compliance Approvals.

If you collect used tires at your site as a result of onsite servicing of your vehicles, you are not a tire collector for the purposes of the Tires Regulation and you are exempt from registering as a collector with RPRA.

Collectors will have to independently enter into commercial agreements with producers, producer responsibility organizations (PROs) or other service providers such as haulers or processors to secure tire collection services. Collectors could also continue to operate within their existing agreements with service providers such as haulers or processors. As long as a collector’s site is part of a producer’s tire collection system, the producer, or their PRO, is obligated to ensure tires are picked up from that site.

Since producers now have legal obligations under the Tires Regulation, producers, or their PROs, will need your tires to meet their management requirements , but you must be registered with RPRA for your tires to count towards producers’ collection and management requirements (unless you are exempt from the registration requirement, for example, municipal sites, Crown sites and fleet operator sites).

A list of registered PROs and producers is available on RPRA’s website on the Find a Registrant page.

The Tires Regulation requires producers to submit to the Registry the identity of each tire collector and tire collection site that is a part of that producer’s tire collection system. It is up to each producer, or a producer responsibility organization (PRO) on the producer’s behalf, to identify the tire collection sites that will be used in their tire collection systems.

Tire collectors are required to register and identify their collection sites (i.e., the address for every individual site where tires are collected). The collection site data will be used to populate a list of collection sites that will be available to producers and PROs. Producers, or their PROs, will be required to identify their tire collection systems.

Please read Compliance Bulletin -Tire Collection Systems for compliance guidance to producers who are required to establish and operate tire collection systems under the Tires Regulation.

No. If a municipality has a private company operating a site on their behalf, the company is not required to register the municipally-owned sites as long as the tires are picked up by a registered hauler and delivered to a registered processor or retreader.

If the private company owns or operates collection sites that are not owned by a municipality, it is required to register and report its non-municipally-owned sites.

To ensure tires continue to be picked up from your sites, you will need to make sure those sites are included in the collection systems established by tire producers or producer responsibility organizations (PROs). Since most producers will work with PROs to establish their collection systems, municipalities should contact a registered PRO.

Visit our webpage about PROs for more information.

No. Producers and PROs working on their behalf must operate the collection systems they have established as required by the Regulation even after their requirements are met. If a consumer is refused permission to drop off materials at a registered collection site, they can contact the Compliance and Registry Team at registry@rpra.ca, 647-496-0530 or toll-free at 1-833-600-0530.

A producer responsibility organization (PRO) is not necessarily required to include each and every collection site in Ontario in their collection system. However, producers and PROs acting on their behalf are required to establish and operate a collection system that meets the requirements of the Tires Regulation.

If a collection site operator is unable to be included in a collection system, the operator should contact the Authority’s Compliance and Registry Team at registry@rpra.ca, 647-496-0530 or toll free at 1-833-600-0530 for assistance. Read Compliance Bulletin – Tire Collection Systems for more information. The contact information for all registered PROs is available on the producer responsibility organization webpage.

No. Municipalities that collect used tires are exempt from the requirement to register with RPRA as a collector or submit reports. Furthermore, there is no requirement for a municipality to establish a tire collection site. Note that a municipality that hauls tires is required to register as a hauler. Read How does the Tires Regulation affect municipalities? for more information.

Under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, the Authority is required to provide an annual report to the Minister that includes information on aggregate producer performance, and a summary of compliance and enforcement activities. Under section 51 of the Act, the Registrar also is required to post every order issued on the Registry.

A producer responsibility organization (PRO) is a business established to contract with producers to provide collection, management, and administrative services to help producers meet their regulatory obligations under the Regulation, including:

• Arranging the establishment or operation of collection and management systems (hauling, recycling, reuse, or refurbishment services)
• Establishing or operating a collection or management system
• Preparing and submitting reports

PROs operate in a competitive market and producers can choose the PRO (or PROs) they want to work with. The terms and conditions of each contract with a PRO may vary.

Read our Compliance Bulletin – What Tires Have to be Reported for compliance guidance to producers about the definition of a tire and the requirement to report historical tire supply information under the Tires Regulation.

Collection sites are required to accept used tires that are of similar rim size and weight as the new tires (or tires on new vehicles) that they sell. Use the Authority’s Find a Collection Site map to find a drop-off location and call ahead to confirm that the collection site will accept your tires.

No. The Authority does not administer contracts or provide incentives. Under the Regulations, producers will either work with a producer responsibility organization (PRO) or work directly with collection sites, haulers, refurbisher’s and/or processors to meet their collection and management requirements. Any reimbursement for services provided towards meeting a producers’ collection and management requirements will be determined through commercial contracts.

To discuss any payment, contact your service provider or a PRO. RPRA does not set the terms of the contractual arrangements between PROs and producers.

Resident in Ontario means a person having a permanent establishment in Ontario within the meaning of the Corporations Tax Act. A permanent establishment is usually a fixed place of business such as an office, factory, branch, warehouse, workshop, etc. In some cases, a corporation will be deemed to operate a permanent establishment in Ontario. These include cases where:

• The corporation produced, grew, mined, created, manufactured, fabricated, improved, packed, preserved or constructed anything in the province, in whole or in part;
• The corporation carries on business through an employee or agent in the province who has general authority to contract for the corporation; or
• The corporation carries on business through an employee or agent in the province who has a stock of merchandise owned by the corporation from which they regularly fill orders that they receive.
• A corporation will also have a permanent establishment in Ontario if it uses substantial machinery or equipment in the province, or if it is has a permanent establishment elsewhere in Canada and owns land in the province.

For more details about what constitutes a permanent establishment, see the definition of “permanent establishment” in the Corporations Tax Act.

You will have to meet the registration requirements for every category that applies to you.

To create a Registry account with the Authority, you will need to provide:

• CRA Business Number (BN)
• Legal Business Name
• Business address and phone number
• Address of where you work (if different from the main office)
• Contact information for your billing contact (this may also be added later)

For regulatory purposes, we need to know your legal name — the name you are incorporated under.  We also need to know your business operating name if it is different from your legal business name to add to our published list of registrants. The list of registrants will be available on our website to allow registrants to interact with one another and to provide information to the public.

For example, if you are a registered collector and your legal name is 123456789 Ontario Ltd. and your business operating name is “Jack’s Garage,” a member of the public looking for a place to drop off used tires will need to know the name you are operating under to identify your location.

Brand holders and producers that supply products and packaging are required by legislation to meet individual mandatory collection and resource recovery requirements and may face compliance and enforcement consequences for failing to do so. The executive attestation ensures that executives responsible for managing the brand holder’s or producer’s business are aware of these requirements and can ensure that appropriate measures are put in place to achieve compliance with the regulations.

Yes. However, if a collection site accepts more than 10 tires from a person on a single day, the operator of the site needs to record the person’s name, contact information and the number of tires accepted at the site from that person.

In their annual performance report, collectors will be asked to report the number of times they accepted more than 10 tires from one person in a single day. The contact information of the person who dropped off the tires must be retained in collectors’ records and produced during any RPRA inspection.

Individual Producer Responsibility (IPR) means that producers are responsible and accountable for collecting and managing their products and packaging after consumers have finished using them.

Under the regulation, producers are directly responsible and accountable for meeting mandatory collection and recycling requirements for end of life products. With IPR, producers have choice in how they meet their requirements. They can collect and recycle the products themselves, or contract with producer responsibility organizations (PROs) to help them meet their requirements.

No. While RPRA is responsible for the oversight, compliance and enforcement of the regulatory requirements for tires under Ontario’s individual producer responsibility framework, RPRA’s activities do not replicate those of OTS.

The Authority is the regulator designated by law to oversee the operation and wind up of current waste diversion programs under the Waste Diversion Transition Act, 2016. The Authority provides oversight, compliance, and enforcement activities with respect to regulations made under the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016.

The Authority recognizes the commercially sensitive nature of the information that parties submit to the registry. The Authority is committed to protecting the commercially sensitive information and personal information it receives or creates in the course of conducting its regulatory functions. In recognition of this commitment, the Authority, in addition to the regulatory requirements of confidentiality set out in the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act 2016 (section 57), has created an Access and Privacy Code that applies to its day-to-day operations, including the regulatory functions that it carries out.

Obligated material supply, collection, and resource recovery data will only be made public in aggregate form, to protect the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information.

The Authority will publish the names and contact information of all registered businesses – producers, service providers (collectors, haulers, processors, etc.), and producer responsibility organizations. The public will also have access to a list or method to locate any obligated material collection sites, as this information becomes available.

As part of its regulatory mandate, the Registrar will provide information to the public related to compliance and enforcement activities that have been undertaken.

The information that is submitted to the Registry will be used by the Registrar to confirm compliance and to track overall collection and management system performance. It will also be used by the Authority to update its policies and procedures and by the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks for policy development.

In accordance with the legislation (Resource Recovery Circular Economy Act 2016, section 57), the Authority is required to comply with strict confidentiality requirements. The Authority has also developed an Access and Privacy Code that applies to its day-to-day operations.

The Registry has been developed according to cybersecurity best practice principles. This includes VPN-based restrictions, staff training on all cybersecurity policies, staff access to the Registry on a strict role-requirement basis, and registry interface security features (example: two-factor authentication).

A volunteer organization is a person who:

• Is a brand holder who owns a brand that is used in respect of batteries or EEE;
• Is not a resident in Canada;
• Has registered with the Authority; and
• Has entered into a written agreement with a producer for the purpose of carrying out one or more producer responsibilities.

A volunteer organization is not a producer but can take on the registration and reporting responsibilities for producers in relation to its brand. Under the Regulation, producers remain responsible for meeting their management requirements and cannot pass off their obligations through voluntary remitter agreements or any other commercial agreement.

Any brand holder or producer who is interested in making any agreement as indicated (or described) above, should contact the Compliance Team at registry@rpra.ca, 647-496-0530 or toll-free at 1-833-600-0530.

Businesses have the choice to recover the cost of recycling their products by incorporating those costs into the overall cost of their product (as they do with other costs, such as materials, labour, other regulatory compliance costs, etc.) or by charging it as a separate fee to consumers.

Environmental fees on batteries, electronics, hazardous and special products or tires are not mandatory and are applied at the discretion of the business charging them, including the amount of the fee.

Consumer protection laws in Ontario require that the purpose of a visible fee cannot be misrepresented. This means that if a business decides to charge an environmental fee on batteries, electronics or tires, the fee:

• must reflect the business’ actual cost of recycling the product; and
• cannot be presented as a government tax, a RPRA fee or something similar.

There are additional rules in the tires regulation about visible fees related to recycling tires. For information about the rules for charging recycling fees on tires, refer to the compliance bulletin Charging Tire Fees to Consumers.

There is no set environmental fee for any product. The amount of the fee charged is decided by the business and must reflect the actual cost of recycling that product.

The tires regulation has specific rules about how a visible fee is communicated to consumers, and how tire retailers and producers must document and report on their use of visible fees. Refer to the compliance bulletin Charging Tire Fees to Consumers for details.

No. An environmental fee is not a government tax and cannot be represented as mandatory, a regulatory charge, or a RPRA fee. It is a fee charged at the discretion of a business to recover their costs related to recycling the product.

If you are concerned about the fee you were charged, you should contact the business that charged you the fee to request a more detailed explanation of how the fee was determined.

If you are concerned about a tire handling fee, you can contact the Compliance and Registry Team at registry@rpra.ca and our team will review to ensure that the rules for charging tire fees were followed.

RPRA does not vet PROs before listing them on the website. Any business that registers as a PRO will be listed. Producers should do their own due diligence when determining which PRO to work with.

Account Admins must add any new, or manage existing, Primary Contacts under the program they wish to give them access to in order for the Primary Contact to be able to submit a report (e.g., permissions to view and complete reports).

To Manage contacts on your Registry account, please see the following steps:

1. Log into your account
2. Once you are logged in, click on the drop-down arrow in the top right corner and select Manage Users
3. Under Actions, click Manage to update preferences of existing users
4. Click Add New User to add an additional contact to your account
5. To give reporting access to a Primary Contact, select the program from the drop-down that you would like to grant them access to

A producer can grant access to anyone they would like to authorize in their reporting (i.e. Registry) portal. Producer reporting must be done in the producer account and batch data transfers are not accepted.

If a producer misreports their supply data to RPRA, they must contact the Compliance and Registry Team immediately by emailing registry@rpra.ca. Please include the following information in the email:

• The rationale for the change in the data
• Any data that supports the need for a correction (e.g., sales documents, audit)
• Any other information to support the change

While it is an offence to submit false or misleading information under the RRCEA, RPRA wants this corrected as quickly to ensure a producer’s minimum management requirement is calculated using accurate supply data.

RPRA can only receive these requests from the primary contact on the company’s Registry account. Your request for an adjustment will be reviewed by a Compliance and Registry Officer.

No, only producers are required to pay RPRA program fees.  The decision to make producers pay fees and cover the Authority’s costs was made to reflect the fact that the Resource Recovery and Circular Economy Act, 2016 (RRCEA) is based on a producer responsibility framework. Although producers may hire service providers to help meet their obligations, the responsibility remains with the producer.

Under the Batteries, EEE, HSP, and Tire Regulations, a consumer is any end user of a product. A consumer includes an individual who obtains the product for the individual’s own use and a business that obtains the product for the business’s own use.

See our FAQ to understand “Who is a consumer under the Blue Box Regulation?”