The provincial agency responsible for recycling has hired a Halifax company to turn used Nova Scotia tires into a type of rubber gravel.

The Resource Recovery Fund Board, which collects approximately 950,000 tires each year, has reached a five-year deal with Halifax C&D Recycling Ltd.

Under the deal, C&D Recycling will shred the tires and produce the rubber gravel, which can be used in road construction or septic fields.

"It's a relatively new product to the marketplace in this part of the country," said Bill Ring, the chief executive officer of the RRFB.

The board has an option to extend the agreement for up to five successive one-year terms.

The company stands to make up to $1.95 per tire, depending on how many tires are collected and shredded, as well as how much rubber gravel is sold. It hopes to start the process by next spring.

Tires have been banned from provincial landfills for more than a decade, and Nova Scotians pay a recycling fee of $3 per tire for passenger vehicles to cover the cost of collecting and processing them.

Used tires are currently sent to a shredder in Quebec.

Ring said the new option will be more environmentally friendly.

"This minimizes the production of greenhouse gas, we don't have to haul them out of the province and the energy used in processing them is minimal," he said.

In 2007, the Department of Environment banned the practice of burning tires for fuel.