12 Weeks

5 Team members

40 Events

Fifty. Two. Thousand. People.

FIFTY TWO THOUSAND PEOPLE!

Imagine, four people on the road for one summer, managed to talk with 52,000 people! That’s pretty incredible.

This is what the RethinkTires Roadtrip is all about—visiting cities across the province to raise awareness about tire maintenance, Ontario Tire Stewardship’s Used Tires Program and the range of products that these recycled tires are turned into.

Everything has been amazing this summer. From the people I have worked with to the places I have been, it has been a crazy, adventurous, exciting 12 weeks.

Ontario Tire Stewardship (OTS) afforded me the opportunity to see a number of different places in Ontario. Whether you’re in Toronto, where I lived for the summer, or visiting towns like Perth, Stouffville, or Leamington, Ontario is a beautiful place filled with beautiful people.

I have so many memories from the summer, but there are a few that stand out to me and really demonstrate the insights that Ontarians gained through the tour. They also prove that you’re never too young to start learning about tires!

• We were at Kingston Buskers Festival in July, and an eight year old girl ran up to our booth and wondered “why we were so green”. I gave her a rubber brick and told her that we recycle. I asked her what she thought the brick was made of, to which she guessed stone, plastic, dirt, and eventually gave up. When I told her that the brick was made out of an old tire, she gasped, smelled the brick, gasped again, and then ran away. A few minutes later she came back with her little brother in tow, grabbed the brick and asked her brother what he thought brick was made out of. When she told him it was made out of tires, he gasped too, and was in utter awe of this small, rectangular rubber brick.

• At Wasaga Beach, I asked a woman if she recycles and told her she can recycle her tires through our Used Tires Program and showed her all the products that are made from recycled tires. I also explained how she can maintain her tires to save up to two weeks’ worth of gas every year. She walked away with one of our tire pressure gauges and came back with ten members of her family, wanting to know how to check the air in their tires! The booth was full of people.

• At EV Day at Yonge-Dundas Square, I spoke with a professor who had heard about the Student Design Challenge, and encouraged some of his best and brightest students to enter the challenge. He would like his students to put their knowledge to practical use in the real world and thought the Student Design Challenge was a perfect opportunity for them to do that.

It is these conversations that I love—the people who get excited about tire recycling, who want to learn more, who always want to know how they can do their part. From eight year-olds to eighty year-olds, we have talked with so many people who want to do more and who are intrigued by the OTS program.

OTS presents Ontario with the opportunity to grow its green efforts, to grow the economy, with contributing to teaching future generations through initiatives like the Student Design Challenge and keeping manufacturing jobs in Ontario. It is a company I can stand behind, because while working alongside OTS, I know they have the ability and best intentions to make Ontario a better place.

Thanks for the memories Ontario Tire Stewardship! This is one summer that will never be forgotten.

– Liz