> So we pay more for tires, the pollution keeps happening, and the extra money is used for virtue signaling with minimal change?

It's often used to promote change, see Canada for instance where the money goes back to citizens et al: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services...

No, investing in healthier tires becomes economically viable.

What does “healthier tire” mean and how will the taxman know which tire is healthier and which one is not?

You start out by measuring tires with some metric, like "pounds of of particulate released pe 50,000 miles when loaded at x", and tax tires with a worse rating higher. Them you're gonna have to keep an eye on additives to tires, because it's always possible someone will find something that makes tires wear slower but the particles more toxic.

It's not impossible.

There will be less pollution if polluting costs more