What The New SB 1215 Covered Battery-Embedded Products Bill Means For Sex Toy Sellers and Buyers
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CA Governor Gavin Newsom just signed Senate Bill (SB) 1215 into law. This new legislation was put into place to hopefully decrease battery fires and injuries sustained by sanitation workers by ensuring that batteries are collected via recycling rather than them ending up in the waste stream. The new SB 1215 amends the Electronic Waste Recycling Act of 2003, by adding covered battery-embedded products to the recycling program.
Yes, batteries we sometimes find in some of those sex toys we might be out there buying.
The Definition of a ‘Covered Battery-Embedded Product’
Simply put, the new bill covers any product that contains a battery that can’t be easily removed from the object it powers by either hand or, at the very most, a “common household tool.” Listed under the state’s CEW Recycling Program, these products include:
Certain medical devices
Existing covered electronic devices (video display devices)
Certain energy storage systems
Electronic nicotine delivery systems
Responsibility (and a fee) For All
As is true of any legislation a deep dive into the bill reveals its regulations…which sometimes take quite a few dives well under to truly understand. But clarity in these matters is essential for both buyers and manufacturers who could all too easily be saddled with a fine for non-compliance.
SB1215 defines a manufacturer as “either a person who manufacturers a covered electronic device sold in the state or a person who sells a covered electronic device in the state under that person’s brand name.” This person or persons is required to “submit a report to CalRecycle, as provided, and to make information available to consumers that describes where and how to return, recycle, and dispose of the covered electronic device.”
Although “selling refurbished covered electronic devices” doesn’t much impinge on sex toy makers, the bill does emphatically state that electronic devices, new or otherwise “need now be labeled with the name of the manufacturer or the manufacturer’s brand label, readily visible.”
Although the above labeling regulation seems slightly redundant in the adult novelty world. What Toychats.com gets is almost always labeled with great care and specificity.
For the consumer?
As stated in the bill “…on and after January 1, 2026, a consumer is to pay a covered electronic waste recycling fee upon the purchase of a new or refurbished covered battery-embedded product.” The retailer is to “collect the covered electronic waste recycling fee from the consumer and remit it to the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA).”
The question then becomes, how much more will the above add to the price of that powered dildo or remote-controlled vibe with the embedded battery?
Opposition And The Future
It’s interesting to note that, according to this report, Senate Bill Third Reading Analysis, under the last page "Arguments in Opposition" section, there's the statement 'No opposition on file.' And although we have heard that one of the main suppliers of the sex toys we get here to review is presently updating their battery-powered toys with new CA laws, only time can tell what long-lasting, industry-wide changes might come from SB1215.
More on this will surely follow.
