Dive Brief:
- A Maryland state commission tasked with recommending battery safety solutions will continue its work after the Maryland legislature approved a bill in April reestablishing the effort.
- The Commission to Advance Lithium-Ion Battery Safety, first formed in 2024, recommended adopting extended producer responsibility laws and providing more equipment and services for first responders, MRFs and municipalities, among other solutions.
- The group’s work was supposed to sunset at the end of 2025, but this bipartisan bill brought it back. The commission now plans to tackle insurance concerns along with regulatory impacts on recycling and port and road safety challenges.
Dive Insight:
Maryland is one of many states working to prevent fires and other hazards from a growing waste stream that includes everything from large-format solar panel batteries to tiny embedded vape batteries.
The commission tasked with untangling this complex problem started work in late 2024 as a fact-finding and research entity. The 20-member group included waste and recycling industry organizations, battery recyclers, fire safety experts, first responders, utilities and environmental agencies, among others.
The group’s work was set to conclude after sending a final report to the governor and general assembly in December 2025, but the commission made it clear that their work had just begun.
“We really only had a year and a couple months to really do any of the work, and that just wasn't enough time,” said Kitty McIlroy, a project manager for the Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal Authority who served on the 2025 commission and plans to return.
The group urged lawmakers, along with first responders, industry professionals and the public, to continue working on battery safety solutions instead of mothballing the initiative.
“Given the rapid pace of technological, regulatory, and industry developments, this report represents a foundation rather than an endpoint,” wrote Emil Nusbaum, the commission chair, in a letter accompanying the report.
The 2025 report prominently featured EPR recommendations, including for vapes and electric vehicle batteries. It also called for an EPR program for small and medium-format batteries, “which is kind of a no-brainer,” McIlroy said. “Recyclers like us have said we need help with the small to mid-size, because those are causing fires and concerns for us.”
The commission sees EPR as a key tool for enabling more responsible battery collection practices and improving public awareness about how to properly dispose of the batteries. EPR could also “encourage design for reuse and recycling, and promote end-of-life management that protects the environment,” according to the report.
The commission also recommended modernizing Maryland’s existing electronics recycling law to include items like embedded battery devices. In 2026, the legislature considered a bill with similar goals, which would have established an EPR program for certain electronic devices like laptops and cameras, but it did not move forward.
The commission also called for MRFs to adopt newer battery detection equipment and to collaborate with fire and emergency personnel on prevention and safety efforts, among numerous other recommendations.
McIlroy said it’s important for the state to pursue initiatives that can unlock funding for recycling and fire prevention programs.
“The majority of our jurisdictions in the state are not recycling a lot of these items. They don't have funding,” she said. “Most of them are funded by a general fund, and they just don't have the bandwidth to either implement tipping fees or find the funding within their general funds.” At the same time, funding for such recycling programs would help the electronics and battery recycling industries continue to grow in the state, she said.
McIlroy says the report continues to be a foundation for the commission to continue working with lawmakers, safety industry experts and others.
The commission could start up again sometime in the fall, McIlroy said. It will focus on a few additional avenues this year, including a deeper dive into battery impacts on permitting considerations for solid waste facilities. The commission could also take a deeper dive into Maryland’s waste classifications for lithium-ion batteries and how that classification might affect how batteries are collected, stored and recycled.
The group also wants to learn more about how battery risks affect insurance coverage availability, and two new members representing the insurance industry will join the commission.
“They're a big part of the conversation,” McIlroy said, noting that it’s becoming “more expensive, more difficult for recycling facilities of all kinds to even get insurance.”
The commission will delve into safety risks at the Port of Baltimore and on roads, rails and tunnels. Other new members will include representatives from the towing industry and the Maryland Port Administration as part of this added focus.
State law requires the commission to submit an interim report by Dec. 1, and a final report with findings and recommendations will go to the governor and the general assembly by Dec.1, 2027.
McIlroy is optimistic about continuing the work, in part because the commission has bipartisan support, particularly around safety considerations for recyclers, first responders and others affected by battery fires. “This isn't something that could have been accomplished in a year, but I do feel like it really set the path in a productive way. It wasn't a commission that was set up and then got forgotten about,” she said.
McIlroy and others on the commission are also interested in seeing how state-level recommendations could be streamlined with national efforts.
Other organizations such as NWRA, SWANA and ReMA have all collaborated on battery safety efforts, and the U.S. EPA has directed more attention to battery recycling initiatives in recent years.
