To dispose of old tires, take them to a tire shop, a municipal drop-off site, or a dedicated tire recycler. You cannot put them in your regular trash in most of the United States, and curbside haulers won’t take them. Most states ban whole tires from landfills, so the disposal route runs through retailers and recyclers rather than your weekly pickup.
Where to Take Old Tires
The simplest option is to hand them off when you buy new ones. Most tire retailers and auto shops will take your worn tires at the time of purchase, and many will accept them even if you’re not buying replacements. Call first. Policies vary, and so do fees.
If you’re not buying new tires, your local government is the next place to look. Many municipal waste departments run permanent drop-off sites where residents can bring a limited number of tires for recycling. Others hold periodic collection events, often in spring and fall, where you can drop off tires for free or a small charge. Your county or city waste management website, or a call to the public works department, will have the dates and locations.
The EPA points to tire recyclers as the preferred disposal method, since recycling keeps tires out of both landfills and stockpiles.1Environmental Protection Agency. Tribal Transfer Station Quick Start Guide – Used Tires Searching online for “tire recycling” plus your city or county name usually turns up local options. Many state environmental agencies also keep lists of approved tire processing facilities, which helps when local options are thin.2U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Scrap Tires – Laws and Statutes
What It Costs
Retailers typically charge a few dollars per tire to take yours off your hands. Some include the fee in the price of new tires; others list it separately. Ask before you commit.
Separately, most states add a small environmental fee to every new tire sold, and that money funds recycling programs and cleanup of illegal dumps. The fees generally run from about $0.25 to $5.00 per tire, depending on the state and tire type. Some states set the amount by law and require it to appear as a separate line item excluded from sales tax; others let retailers set the charge, in which case it tends to be folded into the sticker price. If you’ve been buying tires, you’ve already been paying into this system whether you noticed the line or not.
Storing Tires Until You Can Haul Them Off
If you can’t move your tires right away, store them with a little care. Tires left outdoors fill with rainwater and quickly become mosquito habitat. The EPA recommends covering outdoor tire storage with a plastic tarp to keep water out, keeping tires away from other combustible materials, and keeping piles small enough that you can move them off your property as soon as you have a load for transport.1Environmental Protection Agency. Tribal Transfer Station Quick Start Guide – Used Tires
Accumulating a lot of tires on your property can trigger regulatory requirements. States set thresholds above which you need a storage registration or permit, and local ordinances may be stricter. If you’re sitting on more than a handful, check your local codes. Tire piles get noticed, and a complaint can bring fines even when you planned to dispose of them eventually.
Penalties for Dumping Tires
Every state has its own tire disposal laws and its own penalties.2U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Scrap Tires – Laws and Statutes The specifics vary, but the pattern is consistent: fines for smaller violations, criminal charges for larger or repeated ones, and cleanup liability on top of either.
Monetary fines for dumping even a small number of tires can reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and they climb sharply for repeat offenders and larger quantities. In more serious cases, especially where dumping creates a fire or environmental hazard, prosecutors can pursue misdemeanor or felony charges that carry jail time. The person responsible can also be held liable for the full cost of removing the tires and remediating the site, and that cleanup bill often dwarfs the fine itself. The disposal fee at a shop or recycler is almost always the cheapest option available.
Why Landfills Won’t Take Them
Tires create problems ordinary garbage doesn’t. They aren’t biodegradable, so they stay in a landfill indefinitely. Their hollow shape traps methane from decomposing waste, which makes them buoyant enough to work their way up through the fill and break the surface, damaging the liners that keep contaminated liquids out of groundwater.1Environmental Protection Agency. Tribal Transfer Station Quick Start Guide – Used Tires Because of that, most states have banned whole tires from landfills outright. Some landfills will take shredded or cut tires, often for an added fee, but that still means processing before disposal.
Stockpiled tires are also a fire hazard. Once a tire pile ignites, it can burn for months and is extremely hard to extinguish, and burning tires release benzene, styrene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and oily runoff into air, soil, and water.3U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Tire Fires – Scrap Tires Those risks, together with the mosquito problem, are why regulators treat tires as a separate waste stream and why the disposal path for a homeowner runs through retailers, municipal programs, and recyclers rather than the curb.