Tire Stores Are Dumping Scrap Tires and Pocketing Your Disposal Fee and the Governor Vetoed a Bill to Stop It

In Texas, your dollar is supposed to count — but who's counting?When you buy a set of tires and leave the worn out, scrap tires at the dealer, you may notice a disposal or environmental fee tacked on. The state once used these fees to ensure tires were disposed of properly. Not anymore.No state official has overseen this fee for decades, leaving bad actor tire dealers free to pocket the money and put it toward their profit instead of toward tire disposal. These bad actors are abandoning untold amounts of scrap tires across the state.To make matters worse, Gov. Greg Abbott recently vetoed a bill with the goal to better handle the disposal process of scrap tires to prevent illegal dumping. Senate Bill 570, authored by José Rodríguez, D-El Paso, and co-authored by Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, was the culmination of years of stakeholder collaboration between industry representatives, public health experts and environmental advocates. With a quick pen stroke, it failed to become law on June 15th.  Continue reading...