The explosion of batteries in everyday products, from light-up shoes to wireless earbuds, is reshaping the domestic battery recycling industry and driving new extended producer responsibility laws across the United States.
Cirba Solutions, an end-to-end battery recycler based in Charlotte, North Carolina, has evolved over the last 35 years as batteries increasingly appear in consumer products.
Danielle Spalding, senior vice president of communications and public affairs, noted that Cirba’s lithium-ion processing capacity has skyrocketed from where it was even three years ago, jumping 600% in recycling capacity for lithium-ion batteries and going from two to six operating facilities.
“Battery EPR has created a space of conversation across the industry that we didn’t even have, let’s say, five years ago,” she said.
She added that “technology and batteries have a very integrated connection, because advancing technology often includes advancing battery technology to allow things to be more portable, to last longer, to do the things that consumers are demanding more and more of their products.”
Spalding spoke with E-Scrap News about the new wave of legislative initiatives encompassing embedded and electronic devices making their way through statehouses, why collaboration is catalyzing the industry and the outlook for 2026.
What’s driving the wave of new battery EPR laws?
Spalding: EPR is becoming more and more of a topic, and you’re seeing more and more bills introduced and laws be enacted because we want to put safety at the forefront of the supply chain, and we’re seeing it now because of the adoption within the marketplace of new battery chemistries like lithium-ion and the safety concern that these batteries are being disposed of using improper streams.
Our goal through battery EPR legislation is to ensure that we can go ahead and have these batteries go to the proper streams, handled safely, responsibly and ensure that those materials get, hopefully, then processed and reintroduced as new material back into the supply chain. I think people were used to doing alkaline batteries, right?
Those batteries have a second useful life, but people are used to throwing them away, and so they didn’t know to do anything different until now, these safety concerns with fires and events have come up. On the large format side, very much like small on this instance, people didn’t recognize the true critical minerals inside things like electric vehicle batteries, energy storage units, etc.
So we find that now you’ve got these huge energy-dense batteries. We want to ensure that if anything were to happen, there’s more training for first responders that we can ensure that they’re safely handled and managed, but then also that we are recovering the materials from inside of these, very much like the other ones, to hopefully process them domestically and reenter them back in the supply chain.
What legislation/issues will most impact the industry in 2026?
Spalding: I think there’s a lot of battery-related topics that are going to come up this year. What I would say is that it’s more of a watch-out. We’re starting to see that some states may try to put small, medium and large format batteries all into one bill, or try to handle large format the same way you would a small or medium. And we just want to provide caution to that type of approach, because these batteries are inherently very different, not just from the wattage hour, but how they need to be transported, what they’re transported in and then how they’re handled at processing, could also change.
The other part of this too is the covered battery format. It’s important on this small-medium stuff, you have to make sure that you make it as simple as possible for the consumer.
The third thing I’ll say is, I think you’re going to keep hearing more and more in conversations about damage and defective material and making sure that that is addressed appropriately and responsibly as these conversations continue, because we need to provide and continue to provide good, safe solutions, and we’re happy to be a specialist in the market. But I think that also educating residents on what a damaged or defective battery looks like — what are the characteristics and where to take it.
Where are businesses most at risk of falling out of compliance under these EPR laws?
Spalding: I think the state-to-state struggles are where that is, meaning, if a company sells in both Michigan and Ohio, for example. If Michigan and Ohio have different standards within their now-enacted laws, then they could potentially go out of compliance. If one state requires you to provide certain education and training, but then that differs or varies from another state, you have to stay very clear within those guidelines and you have to be able to execute with the stewardship plan to ensure full compliance, but state to state, there are differences. Those differences can be anywhere from who can execute that stewardship plan, down to how many collection sites are needed within that, down to the reporting requirements can even change. So, it’s really important that they stay up to date.
Where do partnerships come into play when it comes to being compliant, when it comes to collaborating and making sure the industry can comply and also be part of the solution?
Spalding: I’m going to pick small-medium separate from the large format.
We have to make sure that we can provide the reporting to, let’s say, one of the retailers, the largest retailer of batteries. We want to make sure that they have all of the reporting data that they would need to have. So we partner with them to say, we’re changing. This is what we see coming out. This is when our plan is going to have to be done. This is when we have to support X, Y or Z throughout the time frame.
States, as they enact, are going to all have different timelines and when things go into effect. So Illinois, big topic, right? They’re going in this year. They got stuff happening. But California is looking to actually do a fee, and so that’s very different from most other states. So [the retailers] need to be aware of what that impact might be for stores and then potentially their customers.
As we go through large format, the process is different. You’re not going to find a general consumer bringing you just electric vehicle batteries. You’re going to be working with businesses whether that’s the dealerships, whether that’s repair shops, whether that is a different type of network. And we don’t want, necessarily, consumers to try to disassemble their electric vehicle for safety purposes by themselves. We want to do it by someone that’s qualified and trained and can responsibly manage those materials. Therefore, we work with and provide education information on how to package transport right, and then what we do for processing all the way through the process for those electric vehicles, and again, even within our partners.
For OEMs, it is important for us to state that EV batteries are going to change based on make and model. Even within years, they could evolve. So, we stay with this assembly. If that needs to happen, and we’re always aggressive about what’s going on, and educating them on if they change the battery, then this is how it changes assembly and so forth.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
