$1 state surcharge used for cleanups

DOVER-FOXCROFT – Ever wonder where the $1 surcharge for the new tire or battery purchase goes and what it’s used for?

Those dollars, which amount to $1.3 million annually, have helped operate solid waste programs, recycling efforts and salvage tire cleanup.

At the height of the state’s solid-waste woes in the 1980s, the Legislature embraced a package that included fees on the purchase of new tires, lead-acid batteries, furniture, bathtubs and mattresses.

Over the years, all but new tires and lead-acid batteries were withdrawn from the fee schedule. Today the $1 fee paid by consumers at the time of the purchase of each new tire and lead-acid battery is placed in the Maine Solid Waste Management Fund administered by the Department of Administration and Financial Services.

The fund, which also receives revenue from other sources, is dispersed to the State Planning Office, where it funds six positions associated with recycling, and to the Department of Environmental Protection.

The DEP uses the money to operate most of its solid-waste programs, according to Paula Clark, director of the division of solid-waste management. The fund also is used for grants to communities dealing with solid-waste and recycling issues, she said.

Without this aid, the DEP could not continue to operate its solid-waste programs as effectively, Clark said.

Some state officials would like to dedicate the DEP’s share of the pie to scrap tire abatement, but Clark said Thursday her department is strongly advocating the fee remain in the Maine Solid Waste Management Fund for use by the DEP.

Since the tire abatement program began, the state has spent about $12.4 million of it and about one-third of that was paid through the solid-waste management fund, according to Clark. She said the DEP has made progress with the cleanup of salvage tire sites. Clark said her department believes it can complete the cleanup of the largest tire sites with the existing funds without going to a bond referendum this year.

Of the five Class A salvage tire sites – Class A meaning a site that has more than 1 million tires – three have been closed and one is nearly completed, Clark said. Ten of the 29 Class B sites – those having 10,000 to 1 million tires – have been cleaned up, she said.