California’s new charge targets batteries in PlayStations, electronic devices and sound cards

With the start of the new year, Californians will pay a new fee every time they buy a product with a non-removable battery — whether it’s a power tool, a PlayStation or a singing greeting card.

The 1.5% surcharge, up to $15, expands a recycling program that has been quietly collecting old computer monitors and TVs for two decades. The change is the result of Senate Bill 1215, authored by former state Sen. Josh Newman, a Democrat who represented parts of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. It was signed into law in 2022.

Consumers will pay a fee when they buy any product with an embedded battery regardless of whether it is rechargeable or not. Many of these products, experts say, end up in the trash.

California instituted e-waste fees for computer monitors and TVs in 2003. The money worked, keeping dangerous screens out of landfills and building better systems for proper disposal. But over the past 20 years, electronic waste has continued to emerge.

Powerful lithium batteries have become cheaper and more accessible as demand for the technology has increased. They now power everyday products as diverse as cell phones, AirPods, electronic devices and toys.

“These things are everywhere. They are everywhere,” said Joe La Mariana, executive director of RethinkWaste, which manages waste services in 12 cities in San Mateo County – co-sponsor of the law.

And, under certain circumstances, they are vulnerable. Under harsh conditions in recycling and waste disposal facilities, lithium-ion batteries can burst into flames and even explode.

“Paying a small check to fund proper collection is more expensive than the multimillion-dollar fire, higher insurance premiums, and price increases that are returned to communities,” said Doug Kobold, executive director of the California Product Stewardship Council, which co-sponsored the legislation.

A growing problem

In 2016, in the San Mateo County city of San Carlos, a lithium-ion battery started a massive fire at the Shoreway Environmental Center’s recycling facility. It caused plant shutdowns for four months and $8.5 million in damage. RethinkWaste, the county’s waste management agency, oversees the facility. Because of the fire, its insurance premium increased from $180,000 to $3.2 million a year, La Mariana said; taxpayers end up bearing those costs.

That fire prompted the waste management agency to seek solutions to the growing problem of battery fires.

“Since it’s a publicly owned property, every part of that property is owned and paid for by our 430,000 taxpayers,” La Mariana said. “So we have a responsibility to maintain the integrity of these assets. But also, on a human level, we have a much greater responsibility for the safety of our partners and our partners.”

Burning batteries in garbage and recycling centers is a daily hazard. Experts say they are underreported, perhaps because institutions fear surveillance or increased insurance premiums.

And batteries can catch fire anywhere. Last year, two girls were hospitalized after an electric scooter caught fire in a Los Angeles building. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, there are approximately two battery fires on US aircraft every week.

The switch to clean energy brings battery risks

The fee consumers will now pay is just one part of the government’s response to the emerging risk of lithium-ion batteries.

Single-use plastic vapes are exempt from the new law because the Department of Toxic Substances Control has raised concerns about collection and recycling systems handling nicotine, a hazardous substance, said Nick Lapis, an attorney with Californians Against Waste, which co-sponsored the law. They are also the fastest growing source of lithium-ion battery waste.

“If you think someone is smoking a pack a day, that means every day they’re throwing away a device with a lithium-ion battery,” Lapis said.

Last year, Assembly members Jacqui Irwin and Lori Wilson introduced Assembly Bill 762, legislation that would completely ban single-use plastic vapes. Lapis says he expects the Legislature to address the dangers of vapes this year.

Large-capacity lithium-ion batteries present a serious risk of a different kind.

During the Los Angeles fires, lithium-ion batteries, including electric vehicles, were left behind – requiring a major cleanup operation by the Environmental Protection Agency.

And about a year ago, a fire burned at the Moss Landing battery depot for two days, requiring the evacuation of more than 1,000 people. Monterey County neighbors of the facility have complained of illness since the fire, and a recent study found toxic metals in nearby wetlands.

In 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom established a collaboration of government agencies, including the California Air Resources Board and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, to look for safety solutions for battery storage technology. CalFire’s new rules 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 climate shifts away from fossil fuels, said Meg Slattery, an Earthjustice scientist.

“The next question is … where are the things we get, and what do we think happens to this if we don’t use it anymore, which I think we’re traditionally not good at thinking about as a society,” he said.

Alejandra Reyes-Velarde writes for CalMatters.