Explaining Oklahoma's tire disposal fee

Perhaps you've noticed the $5 tire fee on your vehicle registration, or perhaps it's the tire disposal fee you pay for when you buy new tires. <br><br>You've asked about it, but don't understand

Tuesday, November 19th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Perhaps you've noticed the $5 tire fee on your vehicle registration, or perhaps it's the tire disposal fee you pay for when you buy new tires.

You've asked about it, but don't understand what it is. News on Six consumer reporter Rick Wells tells us what the fee is and why we pay it.

Mountains of discarded tires grew on the Oklahoma landscape for decades. Finally in 1989 the Legislature did something about it. They levied a waste tire fee of a dollar per passenger car tire, more for truck tires to try to build a fund to do something about the dumped tires.

When the law was first passed it levied a dollar per new tire and used tire sold, somewhere along the line they realized they were charging for some tires twice, so the law was modified and now one dollar per new tire is collected.

The law also levies that one dollar fee the tires on new and used cars the first time they are registered in Oklahoma. The fee shows up as a $5 tire fee, five tires one dollar per tire.

The Oklahoma Tax Commission told the News on Six, the law requires payment of the fee in advance. The law presumes the tires on that new car will someday be recycled, so the buyer pays the fee when the car is registered.

Most all tires in Oklahoma are recycled in Choctaw at Safe Tire Recycling Company. They pick up tires from dealers all over the state. At Bill's Tire Service at 15th and Yale, they park an empty trailer and pick it up when it's full, usually about once a month.

The tires are then sold as full or ground up with the rubber sold for a variety of uses. Oklahoma pays Safe Tire to collect and process those tires out of the fees they collect from you and me.