Newfoundland and Labrador is going to begin recycling tires in-province instead of shipping them out.

For the past 10 years used tires have been shipped to an end market in Quebec where they are used as tire-derived fuel.

A contract has been awarded to Halifax C&D Recycling to process about 500,000 tires annually from a facility to be constructed in the eastern region.

Tire-derived aggregate is an engineered product made by mechanically shredding scrap tires. It is used in a broad range of civil engineering applications, the majority of which occurs in the construction industry for projects such as road building and repair, transportation infrastructure, commercial and residential building, and landfill design and construction.

The Multi-Materials Stewardship Board will continue to export tires while the new processing facility is being developed. The facility is expected to be in operation by the fall.

Residential and commercial tire collection drop-off locations will not change.

Minister Bernard Davis says the move will be beneficial to the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with exporting tires out of province.