What does the New South Wales battery scheme require?

The Product Lifecycle Responsibility Regulation 2026, Reg 47 of 2026, was made on 20 February 2026 under the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 2025 (NSW). It commences on 1 October 2026 and establishes Australia’s first mandatory product stewardship scheme for batteries.

Who it lands on

Brand owners of regulated batteries must join a Product Stewardship Organisation.

The reach is in the definition rather than in any separate provision. The Regulation states that a brand owner includes the person responsible for bringing the regulated battery into the State for supply. What matters is where the battery arrives, not where the company sits.

It also deals with the case where the brand and the importer are different parties: the owner of the product name is not the brand owner where that owner does not supply the battery in the State and another person is responsible for bringing it in.

What counts as a regulated battery

The scheme covers a defined set of commonly used portable batteries. The EPA has described the scope as small, removable or rechargeable batteries under five kilograms, such as AA cells and power banks, together with batteries used in devices such as e-bikes and e-scooters. The Regulation covers rechargeable batteries used to power e-micromobility devices. The Regulation defines an e-micromobility device as an e-bike, electric scooter, self-balancing scooter or electric skateboard.

One provision repays a second reading. If it is not practicable to remove a regulated battery from an e-micromobility device, the device itself is taken to be a regulated battery. A sealed e-bike is not a vehicle containing a battery. For the purposes of the scheme it is a battery.

What participants have to do

Brand owners and Product Stewardship Organisations must prepare and lodge action plans setting out how they will meet collection, recycling, accessibility, safety, consumer information and compliance requirements.

Both carry record-keeping obligations, and reporting under Schedule 2 covering supply volumes, communication activities, performance against action plans, financial information relating to recycling schemes, and incidents such as battery fires at collection points. The Act provides for a public register.

When the draft regulation went to consultation, the NSW Environment Protection Authority stated that brand owners failing to comply would face penalties of up to 880,000 Australian dollars.

Why New South Wales moved

The scheme replaces a voluntary, industry-led arrangement. B-cycle, the national scheme it supersedes in New South Wales, achieved a collection rate of 15.3 per cent.

The EPA recorded 241 battery-related fire incidents in New South Wales in the year to October 2025. The stated reason for moving from a voluntary scheme to a mandatory one was integrity and accountability in managing the lifecycle of batteries, and reducing those fires.

The Minister for the Environment, Penny Sharpe, attributed the rise to the growing number of products powered by lithium-ion batteries, describing the resulting fires as hot, fast and difficult to extinguish.

What to watch

The appointment of a Product Stewardship Organisation. That process had not concluded when the Regulation was published, and the central obligation on a brand owner is to register with a PSO once one is appointed. With the commencement date fixed, the organisation that businesses are required to join is the part of the scheme still outstanding.

Whether the model spreads. The framework is deliberately product-agnostic. The same regulatory model, including market-access conditions, reporting obligations and scheme participation requirements, can be applied to other product categories by future regulations. Batteries are the first use of it rather than the only intended one.

Whether other states follow. Environment Ministers have been working toward a nationally consistent approach, which makes the New South Wales regulation a template rather than a local exception.

See every other date in the Asia Battery Compliance Calendar.