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Senate committee expands e-waste law to include lithium‑ion batteries and forms HSEO working group
Summary
The Senate Committee on Agriculture and Environment amended SB391 to expand the electronic device recycling and recovery act to include certain lithium‑ion batteries and directed formation of a Hawaii State Energy Office working group to study management, costs and environmental impacts.
On Feb. 12 the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Environment voted to amend and pass SB391 to expand the state’s electronic device recycling law to include certain lithium‑ion batteries and to create a working group under the Hawaii State Energy Office to study end‑of‑life battery management.
The committee-record description says SB391 would require manufacturers of lithium‑ion batteries to recycle or arrange for recycling of lithium‑ion batteries sold in the state and to ensure safe collection, storage, transportation and recycling. Rather than imposing an immediate statewide recycling program, the committee amended the measure into a working group led by the chief energy officer (or designee) and the director of the Hawaii Natural Energy Institute (or designee) as co‑chairs.
The working group’s stated tasks include identifying best practices for end‑of‑life lithium‑ion battery management, comparing safety and environmental impacts of in‑state versus out‑of‑state recycling, performing cost and infrastructure assessments, evaluating enforcement considerations, and studying the feasibility of pursuing recycling options outside the U.S. The committee-record membership list calls for representatives from the Department of Health, each county department that supervises waste management, electronics and battery manufacturers, electronics retailers, the waste‑shipping industry, insurance, environmental organizations, fire departments, the Hawaii Energy Policy Forum, consumer‑electronics repair specialists and others as invited by the co‑chairs.
The working group must submit a report with findings and recommendations, including proposed legislation if any, to the legislature no later than 20 days before the convening of the 2026 regular session and is to be dissolved on June 30, 2026. The committee recorded the vote as Chair, Vice Chair, Senator DeCoite, Senator Rose and Senator O'Boyle voting aye; the chair indicated five in favor and the motion was adopted.
The transcript excerpt does not include a fiscal note, an explicit schedule for any manufacturer obligations or details on which specific battery types are covered beyond "certain lithium‑ion batteries." The committee amended the measure into a study group rather than immediately establishing a regulatory enforcement regime in the provided record.
SB391 provenance: discussion and amendment language are recorded beginning at the block that starts at 1510.5701 seconds and the recorded vote appears in the block that starts at 1678.9249 seconds.
