The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is reminding consumers who plan to buy new tires that the 50-cent-per-tire fee is no longer in effect after Jan. 1, 2004. The waste tire fee, which was not extended during the 2003 legislative session, will expire Jan. 1, leaving the state without its only source of funding for the cleanup of waste tire dumps.
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Missouri’s waste tire program was recognized as one of the top 10 programs in the nation before the fee expired. The Department of Natural Resources has removed approximately 12 million tires from illegal waste tire dumps in Missouri using the state’s 50-cent-per-tire waste tire fee. The department also used the fee to encourage the use of recycled tires in new products and supported 100 percent of the department’s statewide clean up of illegal waste tire sites, playground surface grants, and waste tire inspection and enforcement activities.
“It is unfortunate the tire fee expired this year,” said Steve Mahfood, director of the Department of Natural Resources. “However, the department still has existing agreements in place to remove tires. The department will continue to remove as many waste tires from Missouri’s environment as possible until the fund balance is completely expended.”
The department estimates more than 3 million waste tires will remain scattered across Missouri’s roadsides and communities when the fee expires. When similar fees expired in other states, dumping increased.
When waste tires are not disposed of or recycled properly, they pose serious threats to human health and the environment. Water sitting in a single waste tire creates an environment that can produce 10,000 to 1 million mosquitoes during a breeding season. Mosquitoes are known to carry diseases such as the West Nile virus, Equine Encephalitis, and the St. Louis and La Crosse strains of human encephalitis. Fires from waste tires release hazardous substances into the air, can contaminate groundwater and can burn for months or even years.
When Missourians dispose of or recycle waste tires properly they can provide beneficial uses, including an alternate source of fuel for power plants, raw material for new tires, playground surfaces and other recycled rubber products.
Part of the 50-cent fee paid on each new tire purchased helped fund safer playgrounds for Missouri schoolchildren. “Children in 259 Missouri communities can now play more safely on recycled rubber playground surfaces, thanks to the $1.3 million in grants provided by Missouri’s waste tire fee,” said Mahfood. “This is yet another example of economic improvement working hand in hand with environmental protection.”
For more information on Missouri’s waste tire efforts, visit the department’s Web page at www.dnr.mo.gov/alpd/swmp/tires/TIREFEEPKT.pdf or call Dan Fester at 1-800-361-4827 or (573) 751-5401.