Thousands of discarded tires piled along curbsides, dumped on vacant lots and tossed beside buildings have pushed local advocate Parry Matt Thomas to pitch a fix that would hit tire dealers before a single tire ever reaches a driveway. The idea: add a disposal fee and a matching, refundable deposit to every tire at the wholesale level, so the cost of cleanup no longer falls on property owners or the parish.
The proposal comes from Parry Matt Thomas, who served on the mayor-president's transition team subcommittee dedicated to blight and tire dumping. As reported by WBRZ, Thomas said he has seen the problem firsthand, describing thousands of discarded tires piled along curbsides, scattered across vacant properties and dumped beside buildings. He has said property owners whose land gets dumped on are effectively penalized as victims, and he wants them protected while sparing municipalities the disposal costs.
Under the plan, wholesalers would deposit money with the state for every tire entering Louisiana, and tire shops could later return old tires for a refund or rebate. When a used tire comes back, the state would pay the disposal fee to a recycler and refund the deposit to whoever returned it — an incentive-based system Thomas supports because it rewards people for bringing tires back rather than dumping them.
Council Signals Support, Vote Set for Nov. 24
On Tuesday night, the Metro Council introduced a resolution backing Thomas's plan, according to the same WBRZ report. The council is scheduled to vote on that resolution at its next meeting, November 24. East Baton Rouge Metro Councilwoman Laurie Adams described the mechanics similarly, saying wholesalers would deposit money with the state as tires enter Louisiana, with tire shops able to return old tires for a refund or rebate.
Adams also pointed to a familiar culprit behind the piles Thomas has spotted around the parish. She said tire vendors sometimes dump used tires throughout the parish rather than pay for proper disposal, and individuals may be doing the same thing. Thomas plans to present the proposal directly to state lawmakers, and he said a meeting is set for December 11 with the Senate Committee on blighted properties specifically to discuss tires.
Louisiana Already Collects Fees, But Dumping Persists
Louisiana isn't starting from scratch. Tire buyers already pay a $2.25 fee per tire to cover recycling costs, per the WBRZ report, and the state's existing waste tire recycling program charges $2.25 for passenger-car tires, $5 for medium-truck tires and $10 for off-road tires, according to The Advocate. That program tracks roughly 4.5 million waste tires a year moving through about 3,900 registered tire shops, dealerships and other generators to processors, NOLA.com reported, and a state scientist with the Department of Environmental Quality said the system recycles more than 90% of tires sold each year, though tires outside its records aren't accounted for.
Even so, smaller tire piles keep cropping up all over the state, per the NOLA.com report, and the Waste Tire Management Program paid businesses almost $10 million per year on average between 2014 and 2018 to recycle tires. DEQ Secretary Aurelia Giacometto has said the agency would issue a report to Gov. Jeff Landry about potential solutions, according to The Advocate.
Local Cleanup Costs Add Up Across the Region
The burden of picking up dumped tires has landed on local governments for years. East Baton Rouge city-parish public works employees collected 2,122 dumped tires in the first half of a year referenced in an Advocate photo caption from October 2022. Ascension Parish, meanwhile, collected 2,642 tires in 2023 at a cost of more than $5,250 to the parish, and separately reported collecting 566 tires from ditches and other dump sites between January 1 and August 27, though the year for that tally wasn't specified in the Advocate's reporting.
New Orleans has faced an even bigger haul: city workers there removed an average of about 39,740 tires per year between 2018 and 2021, per NOLA.com. Baton Rouge has already taken one separate step to tighten oversight of the tire trade — the Metro Council approved an ordinance, reported by WAFB, requiring tire businesses in the city and unincorporated areas to obtain a $100 annual tire dealer permit, with a $500 fine for operating without one. Businesses had until March 1, 2026, to comply.
What Happens If You Dump Tires in Baton Rouge
City-Parish guidance already treats illegal tire dumping as a civil offense. According to Baton Rouge City-Parish 311, dumping or disposing of tires outside regular garbage pickup or the City-Parish Landfill without required permits is illegal and may bring civil fines of up to $500 per day. Residents looking to get rid of old tires legally can have them picked up by the garbage contractor if they give notice beforehand, through the Solid Waste Division.
Separate city rules tied to the tire-business ordinance list additional penalties, according to Baton Rouge city-parish government, which says fines may reach up to $50 per tire per violation per day for improper storage, and up to $50 per tire for improper transportation or dumping. Whether the Metro Council ultimately approves Thomas's resolution, and what state lawmakers decide after the December meeting, remains to be seen.
