CT House Passes Bill to Fix Tire Disposal Program

The Connecticut House voted 124-21 Wednesday to require tire retailers to join the state’s first-in-the-nation tire stewardship program, closing a loophole that has let used tires pile up, get dumped illegally, or simply disappear into a disposal system nobody was tracking.

House Bill 5157 gives retail stores until July 1, 2027 to formally sign up. The Senate still needs to act.

The stakes are real for Fairfield County residents. Anyone who’s bought tires at a shop in Bridgeport, Stratford, or Norwalk has probably been quoted wildly different disposal fees with no explanation. That’s not a coincidence. It’s the result of Connecticut walking away from oversight in 1997, when the state stopped tracking how disposal fees were collected and spent.

“It’s been the Wild West out there,” said State Rep. Joe Gresko, a Democrat from Stratford who has pushed the bill. “You could pay $5 a tire, you could pay $20 a tire.”

Gresko put it bluntly: some retailers were pocketing those fees and not properly disposing of the tires at all. Connecticut, like most states, bans tire disposal in landfills, which means improperly handled tires end up in vacant lots, roadsides, and storm drains, problems that show up disproportionately in lower-income municipalities like Bridgeport and New Haven.

How the program actually works

Connecticut’s tire stewardship program launched last month in four towns. Residents can drop off used tires for free at participating locations, including certain transfer stations. The whole operation is funded by tire manufacturers, who build the cost into the price of new tires rather than hitting customers with a separate fee at disposal time.

That’s the point. By collecting money upfront, the program removes the financial incentive to dump tires illegally when it’s time to get rid of them. No surprise fee when you bring in the old ones, no reason to toss them somewhere they don’t belong.

The problem is access. Most used tires don’t end up at transfer stations. They go back to the retail shops where people buy new ones. And so far, not a single Connecticut retailer has voluntarily joined the stewardship program, even though the 2023 legislation that created it gave them the option.

That’s what House Bill 5157 fixes. Mandatory participation by 2027.

Retailers pushed back. Then something shifted.

Tire retailers have opposed being folded into a manufacturer-led program, arguing it would conflict with their existing disposal arrangements, which they pay for through the very fees the stewardship program would prohibit them from collecting. That’s a legitimate business concern.

Still, Gresko said that after negotiations broke down during last year’s legislative session, retail industry leaders came back to the table on their own.

Michael Barbaro, the president of Town Fair Tire, told the CT Mirror in March that participation was inevitable. “It’s going to happen,” Barbaro said. Town Fair Tire operates dozens of locations across Connecticut, including several in Fairfield County, so the company’s posture matters.

Jesse Schofield, the executive director of Connecticut Tire Stewardship, called the House vote a turning point. “This legislation fills a key gap in Connecticut’s tire stewardship program by bringing retailers into a system designed to manage end-of-life tires responsibly,” Schofield said Wednesday. “Retailer participation will strengthen the program already in place, making it easier for residents to recycle tires while supporting cleaner communities across the state.”

Not a small thing. Cleaner communities in this context means fewer tire fires, less mosquito breeding habitat in standing water inside discarded tires, and less pressure on municipal budgets to clean up illegal dump sites.

What to watch

The bill now moves to the Senate. Gresko framed the House vote as the final step in solving a three-decade-old problem, but the Senate has its own timeline and its own appetite for picking fights with the retail industry.

The 2027 deadline gives retailers more than a year to get their operations in order. Whether that’s enough runway to avoid another round of lobbying to delay or water down the mandate is the question worth watching.

For residents in Fairfield County towns that already deal with illegal dumping, the answer can’t come fast enough.