In early March, the Oregon legislature passed a bill aimed at reducing the environmental and safety hazards related to battery disposal. If signed into law, the state would join several others, including Washington, California and Illinois, with laws requiring battery producers to fund programs that collect and safely dispose of batteries.
Lane County Waste Management’s waste reduction supervisor Angie Marzano worked with peers at Metro – the Portland area’s regional government – to lay out the concept for the new battery recycling bill, citing safety as the main motivator.
“We were having landfill fires. We were having trucks, service providers, vehicles catching on fire. We were having fires in sorting facilities. all related to lithium batteries,” Marzano told KLCC. “So we knew that we had to come up with a statewide strategy for management of batteries, and we had to do it quick.”
Marzano said in 2025, there were 56 battery-related fires at the Short Mountain landfill alone. The landfill, which serves Lane County, is just south of Eugene.
If it becomes law, House Bill 4144 would prohibit batteries from being thrown out with the trash. The cornerstone of the law is that by 2029, battery makers must create and fund a Producer Responsibility Organization, or PRO, to collect and recycle, or safely dispose of, batteries. The law states that 95% of Oregonians would need to be within 15 miles of a collection site.
Marzano said today, people can bring most batteries to Lane County transfer stations, Bi-Mart stores, or many electronics stores.
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality was tapped to implement the law and ensure industry compliance.
The bill was approved with bipartisan support during the 2026 legislative session, and is awaiting a signature from Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek.
