John-
Tirex has stated its intent to become a recycling centre. It needs the provincial accreditation in order to secure the local permits to operate on a full time basis.
This is actually a flip flop in policy. Tirex was negotiating a deal with Recyc-Quebec back in '98 on Byrne's watch. There was even a great picture of Byrne and Muro standing in a pile of tires at a Quebec tire dump that was published in the Montreal Gazette that year. Unfortunately it's been taken down recently, but you can look at the old press releases on the Tirex site and see what was going on. Last year, Threshie stated that they had abandoned the goal of recycling tires in Montreal, and focused on developing overseas sales and the relationship with Simpro. Unfortunately, there was more hype than substance and not a single paying deal has occurred to date. Faced with the realitly that they must demonstrate the profitablitiy of the TCS themselves, Threshie did an about-face and is working hard to orchestrate local crumb business.
Getting accreditation from Recyc-Quebec entitles Tirex to get paid for its raw material instead of paying. Accredited recyclers receive about C$1.20 per tire and the TCS is designed to handle over a million tires per year...so this is a significant profit centre. I'm sure they're working on getting what they need and an announcement that they've received accreditation should the stock price up a bit.
