INL expands battery-focused e-waste study to 25 states

By Elena Vasquez

More than 53,700 pounds of electronics—about 63 pounds for each of roughly 850 participating households—came out of 20 collection events in southeastern Idaho through September 2026, according to Idaho National Laboratory.

The 20-event result gives INL a tested operating model: Teams adapted collection methods that worked in New York, where recycling regulations exist, and observed comparable results in southeastern Idaho, which has no such regulations.

What is INL testing beyond Idaho?

INL is recruiting qualified electronics recycling organizations in 25 eligible states for the second phase of its e-waste collection study. The research compares electronics recycling in states with laws or regulations against states without them.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation's Transportation Technologies Office funds the research.

INL's announcement describes the study as examining "strategies for collecting battery-containing electronic devices" and comparing different regulatory settings.

Why does the New York comparison matter?

During the first two years of the INL-led project, teams organized collection events in New York and Idaho. The earlier work establishes the baseline for the second phase.

Researchers compared results in New York, where electronics recycling regulations exist, with Idaho, where no such regulations exist. They then applied successful New York collection methods in southeastern Idaho and observed comparable results across 20 Idaho collection events.

More than 350 participants also completed surveys covering barriers to electronics recycling and ways to improve future collection efforts.

What must recycling organizations deliver?

The study calls for six to nine additional collection events. Each participating organization must conduct at least two to three events before September 2027.

Organizations must demonstrate that they can:

• Organize events at new collection locations, promote them through multiple communication channels and provide participation data plus the types and quantities of electronics collected.
• Access existing residential e-waste collection events and identify qualified organizations to transport, receive, recycle or otherwise process the collected electronics.

For recyclers, the battery focus raises the operational stakes: Event organizers need to know what arrives and connect each collection to qualified transport, receiving, recycling or processing organizations.

Why focus on battery-containing devices?

End-of-life electronics can contain lithium-ion batteries, along with recoverable lithium, cobalt, nickel and other critical materials. That makes battery-containing devices a distinct material stream within the broader e-waste collection effort.

INL says the research aims to raise awareness, improve e-waste collection rates and secure those critical materials in the supply chain.

When will the study produce its next answer?

For participating organizations, the operational test is whether they can open new collection locations, generate participation through several communication channels and document what arrives by device type and volume. The same data will let INL compare collection performance across states with different regulatory settings.

Access to established residential e-waste events provides a base for testing new locations, while the requirement to identify qualified downstream organizations gives collected equipment a route to processing.

INL can now assess whether the Idaho model produces comparable results in other states without e-waste regulations. That is the regulatory question at the center of the project, while event data and surveys will show where collection methods work and where participants report barriers.

The near-term milestone for recyclers is operational: Selected organizations must complete at least two to three events before September 2027 and report participation, device types and quantities. The results will test whether a jurisdiction without e-waste rules has a repeatable collection model.

The next marker is September 2027, when those events and their data will test whether collection can scale in states without e-waste regulations.