Car battery, tire fees kick in Saturday

The tire fee is expected to bring in about $2.1 million a year, the battery fee, $750,000 annually.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Customers buying car batteries and tires in Missouri will pay a little more for them starting Saturday.

That's the date a new law requires retailers to start collecting a 50-cent fee on lead-acid batteries of at least 6 volts -- which generally means batteries for cars and boats -- and a 50-cent fee on each new tire sold.

The money generated goes to the Department of Natural Resources. The battery fee will be used to clean up hazardous waste sites, as well as to respond to spills and prevent leaks. It's expected to generate up to $750,000 a year.

The agency said that in the past, the hazardous waste fund was supported just by companies that generated or handled hazardous waste, and said that number has been falling, so the available funds for cleanup were declining. The fee on everyone who buys a battery will supplement what those companies are paying.

The tire fee, which existed for years until it expired in 2004, will help clean up tire dumps. The agency expects the tire fee to bring in about $2.1 million a year.

Money in the tire cleanup fund has dwindled since the fee expired, with about $1.2 million remaining, said Beth Marsala, the department's solid waste management program enforcement section chief.

Although the fee will be collected starting this weekend, the department doesn't plan to hire staff to check out reports of illegal dumping and handle other duties until January, when the collected money starts flowing to the fund.

Marsala said Monday that there are still about 1.5 million tires needing cleanup, and that estimate is likely low.

Waste tires can pose health and environmental hazards when not properly disposed of, the department said, and water standing in them can help breed disease-carrying mosquitoes.

With the revenue returning, the agency can not only clean up large tire dumps, but also can again make community grants for playground materials using recycled rubber, likely starting in the spring.

The department has moved forward with getting rid of several small tire dumps, and has recently gotten about 7,000 tires cleaned up, with more work under way, Marsala said. It's also preparing to request bids for cleanup of a major site in Cass County, with hope that work could begin in October or November.

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On the Net:

Legislature: http://www.moga.mo.gov

Hazardous Waste Program: http://www.dnr.mo.gov/alpd/hwp/index.html

Waste Tire Program: http://www.dnr.mo.gov/alpd/swmp/tires/tirelist.htm