Senate committee backs 3‑year, 50¢‑per‑tire fee to fund cleanup of abandoned tire piles

Senator Mark Harris presented Senate Bill 1089 to the Health and Welfare Committee, describing a longstanding problem: "there's about 20 or a little over 20 waste tire piles, abandoned waste tire piles across the state of Idaho, and nobody wants to do anything with them." The bill would establish a 50¢ fee per tire at point of sale for a three-year pilot fund administered by the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to contract for cleanup of abandoned piles, provide partial reimbursements to tire recyclers and fund program costs subject to legislative appropriation.

Sponsor and stakeholder testimony traced the issue to Idaho’s original 1991 waste-tire law and a 2003 amendment that changed fee collection and local permitting. Roy Eguerin, representing Liberty Tire Recycling’s interests as a lobbyist, told the committee the bill "repeals the existing Waste Tire Disposal Act in Idaho and replaces it with a new chapter" and establishes a…