Waste tire fee

Jefferson City News-Tribune

We're pleased Gov. Matt Blunt signed into law a bill reinstating Missouri's 50 cent waste tire disposal fee. ...

Whenever citizens buy a new tire, the 50-cent fee will be used to fund the cleanup of the hundreds of dumps that besmirch the countryside.

We think $2 dollars per set of tires is a worthwhile expense, since nearly all of us contribute to the problem when we discard old tires in favor of new ones.

Not only does the funding rid the state of unsightly tire piles, it recycles those tires into useful products. In the past, the tire waste -- ground into crumbs or melted into mats -- has been used to protect kids from painful playground falls. Utility plants and cement kilns have also discovered a use for the excess tires: burning them for fuel.

The Department of Natural Resources estimates that 2.9 million tires remain in unknown illegal dumps and about 1 million are yet to be discovered. The tires represent a real health safety hazard for those humans and animals forced to live nearby.

Each tire can produce between 10,000 to 1 million mosquitoes during a breeding season. Waste tire fires not only release hazardous substances into the air, they also contaminate surface and groundwater sources and can burn for months -- even years.

Missouri's waste tire program was one of the top 10 in the nation before. We hope DNR officials will be able to build it back to its former level of success.