Advising on business strategies, product, and environmental requirements across the battery value chain.

As battery technology and corresponding legal frameworks rapidly evolve, B&D advises players throughout the battery value chain. We provide strategic and compliance support to mining companies, manufacturers of batteries and battery-containing products, logistics providers, retailers, industrial users, and recyclers on the full suite of environmental issues related to the sourcing of raw materials, product design, manufacturing, distribution and market access, collection of used products, reuse and second-life, and end-of-life management including recycling. We also advise on requirements governing battery-containing products, such as electric vehicles, utility-scale energy storage, consumer electronics, power tools, and e-bikes.

Examples of our work in the battery lifecycle include:

Battery Design and Market Access

• Advising on the legal frameworks, regulations, and ethical considerations surrounding the sourcing of materials for batteries and other electronics, including due diligence standards and mandatory and voluntary disclosures related to materials sourcing.
• Advising on material restriction, disclosure, and market access requirements for batteries and electronic products in the U.S. and in key markets worldwide. This includes recent national and state restrictions and reporting requirements related to the presence of PFAS in products.
• Counseling electronics and appliance manufacturers regarding compliance with battery charger energy efficiency standards and defending state and federal enforcement actions brought under appliance efficiency programs.
• Advising companies developing innovative battery chemistries on the application of U.S. hazardous waste management regulations and hazardous materials transport rules to the batteries and their components. Also, providing academic battery researchers in a leading university background on the regulatory framework that may affect the new battery chemistries they are creating.
• Helping clients obtain federal funding for advanced battery manufacturing and battery component facilities.

Advertising and Labeling

• Advising several Fortune 50 companies to ensure that product green marketing claims (such as those relating to recycling and climate goals) conform to applicable federal and state laws and guidelines, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Green Guides and the California Consumers Legal Remedies Act.
• Advising electronics manufacturers and retailers on litigation and enforcement risks associated with energy efficiency green marketing claims and ecolabels.
• Counseling electronics manufacturers on the applicability of California requirements for the labeling of products containing perchlorate to electronics powered by lithium “CR” batteries, which contain lithium perchlorate.

Transport of Batteries

• Working with retailers, manufacturers, cargo carriers, and related trade associations to ensure day-to-day compliance with the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) hazardous materials regulations and their international dangerous goods counterparts, including the requirements for lithium and other batteries.
• Counseling numerous companies on continuing revisions to U.S. and international standards for transport of lithium metal and lithium-ion batteries, and on the potential effect of those revisions to operations involving both new/unused products and products at their end-of-life.
• Preparing successful applications to DOT for Special Permits to streamline the requirements for transport of utility-scale batteries, recalled consumer products containing batteries, and mixed shipments of diverse batteries and battery-containing products.

Battery Use and Storage

• Advising on the applicability of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Hazard Communication Standard to certain batteries and battery-containing products.
• Counseling companies on the application of fire codes to facilities storing lithium-ion batteries.
• Assisting with the installation of commercial-scale batteries for renewable energy storage.
• Advising renewable energy developers on battery storage and disposal issues.
• Advising a manufacturer of novel utility-scale energy storage devices on potentially applicable environmental regulatory requirements associated with product installation at company or customer sites (e.g., spill control plans; hazardous air pollutant emissions).

Product Take-Back and Extended Producer Responsibility

• Developing comprehensive analyses of applicable take-back requirements for used batteries in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America.
• Counseling manufacturers on the applicability of New Jersey’s ground-breaking extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme for propulsion batteries (including EV batteries) to their products and operations, and on related “producer” compliance obligations and advocacy.
• Advising manufacturers of stationary energy storage devices on potential applicability of U.S. EPR schemes applicable to “batteries.”
• Tracking product stewardship legislation in Canada, the U.S., and certain Latin American countries regulating the environmental aspects and end-of-life management of batteries (and battery-containing products) for a group of leading manufacturers of electronic equipment.
• Advising a Fortune 50 IT company for many years on proposed and enacted EPR laws in the U.S. and in key markets worldwide.
• Counseling several manufacturers of consumer products containing batteries or fuel cells in their development of take-back programs for used products in the U.S.
• Assisting several clients in developing and implementing programs for take-back and recycling of used products, addressing not only hazardous waste and hazardous materials regulatory requirements, but also other regulatory issues (e.g., rules for controlled substances, radioactive materials, consumer protection, etc.) and general liability and contractual issues.

Battery Reuse and Recycling

• Assisting major recyclers of lithium-ion batteries and “black mass” from such recycling on issues related to strategic planning, advocacy, facility permitting, regulatory compliance, transboundary waste movements, and environmental enforcement matters.
• Drafting contract terms for domestic or international transactions for purchase or sale of used lithium-ion batteries or black mass for recycling.
• Preparing comments on the original Universal Waste Rule that streamlined U.S. hazardous waste requirements for the collection and transport of used batteries, and tracking EPA’s current plans to revise that rule to address fire risks from lithium-ion batteries.
• Helping a leading waste services company ensure that its program for collecting and recycling batteries with a wide range of chemistries (e.g., lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, lithium metal, lithium-ion, alkaline, etc.) complies with applicable regulatory requirements in the U.S.
• Assisting a major recycler of lead-acid batteries in determining the requirements for transboundary movements of waste batteries and components, and management of such materials within the U.S.
• Advising several clients in the retail and telecommunications sectors with respect to aggressive enforcement actions by the California Attorney General’s Office and local District Attorneys in the state, alleging failure to manage batteries and e-wastes properly under the state hazardous waste regulations.

International Battery Stewardship

• Representing the U.S. electronics industry in negotiations on the classification and management of used and end-of-life electronic equipment and batteries under the Basel Convention and related international agreements governing the transboundary movement of e-waste. This work includes participating in the Basel Convention’s working group developing technical guidelines for the classification and management of lithium and other batteries at the global level and representing business interests in meetings of the OECD.
• Developing a successful strategy for a major high-tech trade association to ensure that gamma-butyrolactone—a solvent used in certain lithium batteries and other key industrial applications—was not listed by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs under Schedule I of the Psychotropic Substances Convention. The listing was recommended by the World Health Organization and would have severely limited or even prohibited continued production and use of the chemical.
• Advising on recalls of consumer electronic products containing defective lithium-ion batteries, both in the U.S. and worldwide, to ensure compliance with dangerous goods shipment and hazardous waste classification and management laws, including laws governing the transboundary movement of recalled products.
• Counseling a major oilfield services company on a variety of issues associated with its efforts to collect and recycle large lithium batteries from well-sites around the world in accordance with applicable hazardous waste and dangerous goods regulations, including the requirements of the Basel Convention.
• Advising leading global technology companies on criteria and legal requirements in various countries and in the EU for ensuring used electrical and electronic products managed for repair, refurbishment and reuse are classified as “used products” rather than “wastes” subject to shipment controls and trade bans.
• Assisting several manufacturers of consumer products containing batteries or fuel cells in developing international take-back programs for used products. As part of this effort, we took the lead in an effort to analyze the potential for certain lithium-ion batteries to be classified as hazardous wastes under the rules in numerous countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia/Pacific, and Africa.

Battery Webinar Series

B&D hosts a Battery Webinar Series covering topics such as responsible sourcing, EPR schemes for lithium batteries, transport and recycling, and federal funding for battery projects.