Title 42 — The Public Health and WelfareRelease 119-73

§14302 Definitions

Title 42 › Chapter CHAPTER 137— - MANAGEMENT OF RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES AND BATTERIES CONTAINING MERCURY › Subchapter SUBCHAPTER I— - GENERALLY › § 14302

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

Defines key words used in this chapter. "Administrator" means the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. "Button cell" means a small, button- or coin-shaped battery. "Easily removable" means a battery can be taken out at the end of its life either by a consumer using common household tools or by a retailer replacing a vehicle’s main battery. "Mercuric-oxide battery" means a battery that uses a mercuric-oxide electrode. "Rechargeable battery" means one or more cells made to be recharged and reused, and it includes enclosed battery packs (the whole pack is treated as the battery for removability and labeling). It does not include four types of batteries: certain lead‑acid vehicle batteries, lead‑acid storage batteries for alternative energy, batteries used only for backup memory/timekeeping, or rechargeable alkaline batteries. "Rechargeable consumer product" means a retail product that uses a regulated battery as its main power for personal or household use, excluding products that only use batteries for backup power. "Regulated battery" means a rechargeable battery with cadmium or lead electrodes or other chemistries if the EPA Administrator decides so under section 14322(d). "Remanufactured product" means a rechargeable consumer product that was repaired, had parts replaced, or was repackaged after the original sale.

Full Legal Text

Title 42, §14302

The Public Health and Welfare — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

For purposes of this chapter:

(1)The term “Administrator” means the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

(2)The term “button cell” means a button- or coin-shaped battery.

(3)The term “easily removable”, with respect to a battery, means detachable or removable at the end of the life of the battery—

(A)from a consumer product by a consumer with the use of common household tools; or

(B)by a retailer of replacements for a battery used as the principal electrical power source for a vehicle.

(4)The term “mercuric-oxide battery” means a battery that uses a mercuric-oxide electrode.

(5)The term “rechargeable battery”—

(A)means 1 or more voltaic or galvanic cells, electrically connected to produce electric energy, that is designed to be recharged for repeated uses; and

(B)includes any type of enclosed device or sealed container consisting of 1 or more such cells, including what is commonly called a battery pack (and in the case of a battery pack, for the purposes of the requirements of easy removability and labeling under section 14322 of this title, means the battery pack as a whole rather than each component individually); but

(C)does not include—

(i)a lead-acid battery used to start an internal combustion engine or as the principal electrical power source for a vehicle, such as an automobile, a truck, construction equipment, a motorcycle, a garden tractor, a golf cart, a wheelchair, or a boat;

(ii)a lead-acid battery used for load leveling or for storage of electricity generated by an alternative energy source, such as a solar cell or wind-driven generator;

(iii)a battery used as a backup power source for memory or program instruction storage, timekeeping, or any similar purpose that requires uninterrupted electrical power in order to function if the primary energy supply fails or fluctuates momentarily; or

(iv)a rechargeable alkaline battery.

(6)The term “rechargeable consumer product”—

(A)means a product that, when sold at retail, includes a regulated battery as a primary energy supply, and that is primarily intended for personal or household use; but

(B)does not include a product that only uses a battery solely as a source of backup power for memory or program instruction storage, timekeeping, or any similar purpose that requires uninterrupted electrical power in order to function if the primary energy supply fails or fluctuates momentarily.

(7)The term “regulated battery” means a rechargeable battery that—

(A)contains a cadmium or a lead electrode or any combination of cadmium and lead electrodes; or

(B)contains other electrode chemistries and is the subject of a determination by the Administrator under section 14322(d) of this title.

(8)The term “remanufactured product” means a rechargeable consumer product that has been altered by the replacement of parts, repackaged, or repaired after initial sale by the original manufacturer.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

42 U.S.C. § 14302

Title 42 — The Public Health and Welfare

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73