Australia Acts on Battery waste: NSW Leads the Way

Australia is stepping up on the transition to a circular economy, with waste batteries highlighted as a priority at the joint Environment Ministers’ Meeting on 27 March 2026. Ministers agreed to develop an Inter-Governmental Agreement by mid-2026 for Environment Ministers’ intervention on circular economy issues, including a set of principles to prioritise issues and actions with the greatest impact on circular markets, waste and resource recovery. Ministers have tasked their officials to draft nationally consistent product stewardship plan options, with a focus on batteries (and packaging), to be presented at the next Environment Ministers’ Meeting later this year. 

NSW takes the lead

Batteries are a growing fire risk. In 2025, Fire and Rescue NSW recorded 332 lithium-ion battery incidents, and in just the first months of 2026, there have already been 62 community fires, 12 in garbage trucks, and at least 103 suspected battery-related waste fires.  Nationally, it’s estimated there are at least 10,000 battery related fires and heat events across waste and recycling streams each year (See: ACOR & WCMR (2024) “Industry survey: Battery fires in waste & recycling”)

Responding to this increasing environmental and human health risk, the Minns Labor Government has introduced nation-leading stewardship regulations for batteries under the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act – making NSW the first state in Australia with mandatory product stewardship for small and removable batteries under 5 kg—including AA, AAA, power banks, e-bike and e-scooter batteries.

Under the new regulations, effective from 1 October 2026:

• Brand owners must join the scheme and pay a levy to fund safe collection, disposal, and recycling
• Dedicated battery drop-off points will be available for households
• Public education campaigns will raise awareness of battery fire risks
• Annual reporting will track battery supply and recycling performance
• Non-compliant suppliers face penalties up to $880,000

Commenting on the need for regulated stewardship, Acting Premier Prue Car said: “All too often, products are designed with no consideration for what happens when they reach the end of their life, and batteries are a clear example of the consequences.”  Similarly NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe noted that the NSW Government wanted “to see battery suppliers take greater responsibility for the safe collection and recycling of their products.” 

Criticism of the current voluntary scheme

The new reforms come after vocal criticism by TEC and recyclers of B-cycle, Australia’s voluntary battery stewardship program which was designed and is governed by the battery industry.  TEC has issued public reports noting that this scheme failed to collect the majority of end-of-life batteries and to allocate sufficient funding for community education, leaving households largely unaware of proper disposal practices. Noting the urgency of the problem, the NSW EPA’s “Never Bin a Battery” campaign will partner with Fire and Rescue NSW, targeting the highest-risk areas, to educate the public about the importance of safe battery recycling. Campaign messages will appear on fire trucks, at public events, and at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.  

While costs of public education and facilitating a system of safe collection for household batteries was intended to be covered by the voluntary stewardship scheme (Bcycle), states and territories around Australia have had to dig deep to fund significant portions of these costs, detracting significantly from the “polluter pays” principle upon which the stewardship scheme was premised. These costs include: 

• Victoria – $1.7m announced in July 2025  to boost local Council and charity based battery collection.
• Queensland – $2m announced in May 2025 to boost local Council collection networks and public education campaigns

As an industry led scheme, participating battery producers and importers had sway over how little they wanted to contribute to the stewardship scheme. As a result, the levies collected by the voluntary scheme were not sufficient to cover the cost of collecting and recycling even 20% of in scope end of life batteries.  Financial documents obtained from the Australian Charities and not-for-profit Commission, shows Bcycle in a deficit of more than $2.25m in the financial year ending 2025, up almost 300% from their $710k deficit in 2024.

National harmonisation on the horizon

The development of a draft intergovernmental agreement to deliver options for nationally consistent product stewardship is a major move, partly in response to the failure of the federal government to promptly act. 

TEC has welcomed the reforms and will be providing our thoughts on the best way forward.  The B-cycle failure serves as another example of voluntary schemes delaying effective action over the products they intend to address, avoiding the majority of the costs required to mitigate the environmental and human harm impacts.  

You can read more about TECs criticisms of the B-cycle scheme in our Battery Crisis Report and Battery Crisis Update report.