The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection Product Stewardship Advisory Commission voted to approve an amended recommendation on battery stewardship and directed staff to prepare and circulate a draft product report to the committee for movement toward the legislature.

Commission members debated whether the recommended statutory definitions would be sufficiently future-proof to capture evolving battery chemistries. A staff explanation at the meeting noted the recommended definitions are keyed to size (megawatt-hour), which the presenter said should capture new chemistries even as battery technologies change. "For batteries specifically, there's definitions that define by size and I think it's megawatt hour. So even if the battery chemistry were to evolve, [it] would still likely be captured under that definition," a staff member said during the discussion.

Commissioners and stakeholders also pressed for performance metrics tied to recovery, not only access. "Specifying that there should be recovery-based performance standards, I think, would be smart," said Abby Webb of Casella, who participated in the working group that drafted the recommendation. Supporters argued that collection access without recovery targets could leave material stranded in the system.

After discussion, a motion to approve the amended battery recommendation was made and carried by voice vote; no opposition was recorded on the record. Staff indicated they will prepare the draft product report (DPR) and circulate it to the committee as the group moves toward presenting it to the legislature.

The commission's action does not itself change law; it directs staff and the registered producer/stewardship processes to proceed with the recommendation and follow-on regulatory steps, including preparing the program materials needed for legislative consideration. Commissioners said they expect additional implementation details (regulatory language, definitions, performance metrics) to be refined as the DPR is drafted and circulated for comment.

Next steps noted at the meeting include circulating the DPR for committee review and preparing the materials that would accompany legislative submission. Commissioners also urged that recovery-based performance standards be explicitly considered during rulemaking and program-plan drafting.

Provenance: Portions of the discussion and the recorded voice vote appear in the meeting transcript beginning at 336.54 seconds (battery recommendation discussion) and at 521.48 18: (motion and voice vote).