Amended California Battery EPR Bill Now Law

On September 20, 2026, California Governor Newsom signed California bill SB 501 into law, which modifies provisions of the state’s Responsible Battery Recycling Act (AB 2440 or the Act). AB 2440, enacted in 2022, establishes an extended producer responsibility (EPR) program administered by the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle), with the Department of Toxic Substances Control (Department). It lays out rules “for the collection, transportation, and recycling, and the safe and proper management, of covered batteries in California in an economically efficient and practical manner.” AB 2440 creates an extended producer responsibility program for certain types of covered loose batteries, expanding the universe of covered batteries while establishing key exemptions. SB 501 adds several definitions and creates new obligations for producers of batteries covered by AB 2440 that businesses should be aware of.

SB 501 adopts key changes to AB 2440. It:

• Revises the description of a “loose battery” for purposes of the Act’s definition of a “covered battery,” removes certain exclusions from the definition, and recategorizes all covered batteries as either a small format battery or a medium format battery;
• Requires the stewardship plan to describe how the producer or stewardship organization will provide a certain number of collection sites for small format batteries and medium format batteries, as specified;
• Requires a stewardship plan to include consultation with the Office of Environmental Justice, Tribal Relations, and Education and Outreach instead of the Environmental Justice Task Force, and also to coordinate with California Native American Tribes;
• Requires a stewardship plan to demonstrate that the stewardship organization has adequate financial responsibility and financial controls in place to ensure proper management of funds;
• Requires program operators to annually demonstrate achievement of a minimum recycling efficiency rate of 60 percent for rechargeable batteries and 70 percent for non-rechargeable and primary batteries;
• Authorizes the Department and certain local officers and agencies to enter and inspect any collection site, establishment, or any other place or environment where hazardous wastes are stored, handled, processed, disposed of, or being treated to recover resources;
• Authorizes the Department, to ensure compliance with the Act, to inspect and investigate producers, program operators, stewardship organizations, manufacturers, distributors, retailers, importers, recyclers, and collection sites; and
• Expands the duration of recordkeeping required under the Act from three to five years.

SB 501 did not alter some key AB 2440 exemptions, including, among others: batteries in certain Class I medical devices; motor vehicle batteries; and batteries in a motorized scooter, skateboard, or hover board. Recalled batteries also remain expressly exempt, an important exclusion as many types of battery-operated products are recalled in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

AB 2440 and SB 501 create a program different from the program established under SB 1215, which requires retailers to charge a fee for covered battery-embedded products. We previously discussed SB 1215 here and here, but note that CalRecycle recently announced a proposal to adopt emergency regulations to amend SB 1215. According to the announcement, the Covered Battery-Embedded Waste Recycling Fee emergency regulations were scheduled to be submitted to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) on September 17, 2026, beginning the 10-calendar-day emergency rulemaking process. The 5-calendar-day public comment period ended on September 22. If the emergency regulation is implemented as proposed at the end of the rulemaking process on September 28 (10 calendar days from September 17 is September 27, a Sunday), it would maintain the covered battery-embedded waste recycling fee at 1.5 percent of the retail sales price but reduce the maximum fee cap from $15.00 to $1.00, effective January 1, 2027.

The revised battery EPR program may create confusion with the embedded battery program because it broadly covers not only “loose” batteries sold separately from a product, but also batteries “designed to be easily removed from a product by the user of the product, with no more than common household tools.” Adding to the ambiguity, SB 501 would provide that “[a] key, application, or other locking device provided to the consumer by the producer of the product or battery that is warranted by that producer of the product or battery to serve solely to prevent theft of the battery or tampering by persons other than the consumer and not to inhibit the consumer’s ability to remove, replace, or recycle the battery shall not prevent a battery from being considered designed to be easily removed from a product by the user of the product with no more than common household tools.” Manufacturers and retailers of batteries and products containing batteries will need to evaluate the requirements and determine which program applies.