Committee backs three-year 50¢-per-tire fee to clean abandoned tire piles

The Senate Health and Welfare Committee voted 5–4 to send Senate Bill 1089 to the Senate floor after hearing testimony from recyclers, local governments and trade groups supporting a three-year pilot program to address abandoned waste-tire piles and to incentivize tire recycling.

Sponsor Mark Harris told the committee that Idaho faces dozens of abandoned tire piles across the state that pose environmental and public-health hazards, including fire risk and mosquito breeding. The bill would establish a 50¢ fee charged at the point of purchase and deposit the revenue into a new state fund administered by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) subject to legislative appropriation. DEQ could use the fund to contract for cleanup, provide grants to local governments or provide partial reimbursements to recyclers for collection and processing.

Roy Eguerin, a lobbyist working with Liberty Tire Recycling, described an inventory DEQ prepared and the stakeholder process used to craft the bill. He told the committee the sponsor and stakeholders…