With the start of the new year, Californians will pay a new fee every time they purchase a product with a non-removable battery, whether it's a power tool, a PlayStation, or even a greeting card.
The 1.5% surcharge, capped at $15, expands a recycling program that has been quietly collecting old computer monitors and televisions for two decades. The change is a result of Senate Bill 1215, authored by former state Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat who represented parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino. It became law in 2022.
Consumers will pay the fee when purchasing any product with a built-in battery, whether rechargeable or not. Many of these products, experts say, end up in the trash.
California pioneered charging for electronic waste with computer monitors and televisions in 2003. Charging worked, keeping dangerous screens out of landfills and building better systems for their proper disposal. But over the past 20 years, e-waste has continued to evolve.
Powerful lithium batteries have become cheaper and more accessible as demand for the technology has increased. They now power everyday products as diverse as mobile phones, AirPods, power tools and toys.
“These things are everywhere. They're ubiquitous,” said Joe La Mariana, executive director of RethinkWaste, which manages waste services for 12 cities in San Mateo County, one of the legislation's co-sponsors.
They are also, in some circumstances, a risk. In the harsh conditions of recycling and waste facilities, lithium-ion batteries can catch fire and even explode.
“Paying a small check fee to fund proper collection is much cheaper than the multi-million dollar fires, higher insurance premiums and rate increases passed on to communities,” said Doug Kobold, executive director of the California Commodity Stewardship Council, which co-sponsored the legislation.
A growing problem
In 2016, in the city of San Carlos, San Mateo County, a lithium-ion battery caused a large fire at the Shoreway Environmental Center recycling facility. It shut down the plant for four months and caused $8.5 million in damage. RethinkWaste, a regional waste management agency, oversees that facility. As a result of the fire, his insurance premium increased from $180,000 to $3.2 million annually, La Mariana said; taxpayers ultimately borne that cost.
That fire prompted the waste management agency to look for solutions to the growing problem of battery fires.
“As a publicly owned facility, every part of that property is owned and paid for by our 430,000 taxpayers,” La Mariana said. “So we have a fiduciary responsibility to maintain the integrity of these assets. But also, on a human level, we have a very high responsibility for the safety of our colleagues and co-workers.”
Battery fires at waste and recycling facilities are an everyday hazard. Experts say they don't report, probably because facilities fear oversight or increases in insurance premiums.
And batteries can catch fire anywhere. Earlier this year, two girls were hospitalized after an electric scooter caught fire at a Los Angeles apartment building. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, nearly two battery fires occur on U.S. flights each week.
Switching to clean energy brings dangers to batteries
The fee consumers will now pay is just one part of the evolution of the state's response to the emerging risk of lithium-ion batteries.
Single-use plastic vaporizers are exempt from the new law because the Department of Toxic Substances Control raised concerns about collection and recycling systems that handle nicotine, a dangerous substance, said Nick Lapis, an advocate with Californians Against Waste, which co-sponsored the legislation. They are also the fastest growing source of lithium-ion battery waste.
“If you imagine someone smokes a pack a day, that means every day they throw away a device with a lithium-ion battery,” Lapis said.
Last year, Assemblymembers Jacqui Irwin and Lori Wilson introduced House Bill 762, a bill that would ban single-use plastic vaporizers entirely. Lapis says he hopes the Legislature addresses the risk of vapers this year.
Large-scale lithium-ion batteries present a major danger of another kind.
During the Los Angeles fires, dangerous lithium-ion batteries, including those from electric vehicles, were left behind, prompting a major cleanup operation by the Environmental Protection Agency.
And almost a year ago, a fire burned at a battery storage site in Moss Landing for two days, requiring the evacuation of more than 1,000 people. Residents of the Monterey County facility have complained of feeling sick since the fire, and a recent study detected toxic metals in nearby wetlands.
In 2024, Newsom established a collaboration of state agencies, including the California Air Resources Board and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to pursue safety solutions for battery storage technologies. New CalFire regulations for battery storage systems will go into effect this year.
Finding ways to properly dispose of batteries and their lithium in the waste stream is critical as the state transitions away from fossil fuels, said Earthjustice scientist Meg Slattery.
“The next question is…where do we get the materials from and think about what happens to them when we no longer use them, which is something I think we're not traditionally good at thinking about as a society,” he said.
Alejandra Reyes-Velarde writes for CalMatters.
