A Colorado bill covering the end-of-life management of propulsion batteries used in electric and hybrid vehicles was signed into law by Gov. Jared Polis June 4 and could set a new standard across the United States for how battery recycling legislation is crafted.
Senate Bill 26-003 received bipartisan support from state lawmakers and is designed to expand on Colorado’s existing Battery Stewardship Act (S.B. 25-163), which established an extended producer responsibility (EPR) framework for small- and medium-format batteries last year. S.B. 26-003 establishes requirements for large-format batteries that differ from the requirements of its predecessor.
Most notably, the law enacts a landfill ban on propulsion batteries starting July 1, 2029, adds layers of detail to how batteries are documented and imposes critical mineral recovery targets—a first in the U.S.
Danielle Spalding, senior vice president of corporate and external affairs at Charlotte, North Carolina-based battery recycler Cirba Solutions, represented one of the many stakeholders who helped build the legislation. She calls the bill a “breakthrough opportunity” for the battery recycling industry and noted the high level of cross-sector collaboration that took place on the way to the finish line.
“Working on this particular bill, I’ve never seen the collaboration throughout the entire supply chain that I’ve seen on this bill,” Spalding tells Recycling Today. “There was a commitment from the bill’s sponsors, to the industry, from the producers on the front end, through automotive recyclers and repurposers. The entirety of the supply chain was really, truly represented here.”
Along with input from battery recyclers such as Cirba Solutions and Carson City, Nevada-based Redwood Materials, for example, the legislation was informed by automakers, battery manufacturers, industry associations like the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) and institutional stakeholders as the law’s advocates attempted to strike a balanced approach that toes the line between optimism for the growth of electrification with the realities of current operations.
“There were hundreds of hours committed to work on this,” Spalding says. “It was really intense. It took about five or six months of really strong collaborative work on this particular bill. Typically, legislation like this would start more like a year out. In this particular case, there was a framework already outlined, and then the industry came in and really worked together to enhance it to work for all stakeholders.”
In a recent news release, the ARA claimed that approximately 330,000 vehicles reach their end of life in Colorado every year, and automotive recycling facilities process a majority of them.
With a rapid increase in the number of vehicles containing high-voltage batteries reaching their end of life, the state’s automotive recyclers are the first touchpoint for those batteries, the ARA says. Due to the complex nature of working with large-format batteries that pose workplace safety risks, potential environmental liability and an uncertain downstream market, the organization says S.B. 26-003 helps ensure the state’s existing end-of-life vehicle recycling infrastructure can continue to provide benefits to vehicle owners and the environment.
"S.B. 26-003 positions Colorado to address emerging battery management challenges that are already putting pressure on vehicle recycling infrastructure,” says Emil Nusbaum, vice president of strategy, government and regulatory affairs for the ARA. “We are proud to have worked alongside the General Assembly and industry stakeholders to deliver a solution that is practical, market-driven and built on infrastructure that has served Coloradans for over a century."