Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed 2025 Wisconsin Acts 170 and 171 into law April 2, creating a producer-funded battery recycling program with a plan filing deadline of Jan. 1, 2027 and a disposal ban that takes effect Jan. 1, 2028.

The bipartisan legislation establishes a statewide extended producer responsibility, or EPR, framework for portable batteries. Producers must join a battery stewardship organization and submit a collection-and-recycling program plan to the Department of Natural Resources for approval. Once the DNR signs off, the program will offer free battery drop-off at collection points across the state.

What batteries does the law cover?

Covered products include batteries designed for easy removal with common household tools. The statute applies to:

• Rechargeable lithium-ion, nickel cadmium, and nickel metal hydride cells used in consumer electronics, small appliances, power tools, and e-mobility devices such as e-bikes and scooters
• Single-use alkaline batteries in AAA, AA, C, and D formats
• Button or coin cell batteries

Lead-acid vehicle batteries stay outside the program and continue through Wisconsin's existing automotive recycling channels. Devices handled by the state's E-Cycle Wisconsin electronics program also fall outside the new statute.

Why the disposal ban?

The DNR framed the law as a fire-risk response, not a recovery-rate program. Many lithium-ion cells retain a residual charge after they can no longer power a device, the agency says. When consumers place used batteries or battery-containing electronics in trash or curbside recycling bins, collection, sorting, and processing equipment can damage the cells. Damaged cells ignite, triggering facility fires that endanger material recovery facility, or MRF, workers and destroy sorting equipment.

Wisconsin's 2028 disposal ban converts the existing opt-in collection model into a mandatory one for any household placing covered batteries in municipal solid waste. Before enforcement begins, stewardship organizations and the DNR must build out the statewide collection network and publish plan-content rules.

What producers must do

The acts leave program design to the stewardship organization and the DNR. Compliance milestones include:

• Plan filing deadline: Jan. 1, 2027
• DNR approval of the stewardship plan
• Rollout of free statewide collection sites
• Disposal ban enforcement begins Jan. 1, 2028

The DNR said it collaborated with industry stakeholders to draft the legislation and will share implementation guidance with producers, retailers, and haulers in the months ahead.

What happens next

The DNR must publish plan-content requirements, performance metrics, and reporting formats before the Jan. 1, 2027 filing deadline so stewardship organizations can submit qualifying applications. The agency's first rulemaking cycle on stewardship plan review will set the format for collection-density targets, financing structures, and reporting cadence that future compliance audits will rely on.

The Jan. 1, 2028 disposal ban will be the program stress test. The statute itself does not detail the enforcement pathway for the ban, leaving open whether compliance will rely on public education, hauler-level inspection, or financial penalties. The first year of post-ban reporting will set the collection baseline that future rule revisions will measure against.