Extended producer responsibility (EPR) is the principle, applied through Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, that producers bear financial and organisational responsibility for batteries across their life cycle, including collection, treatment, recycling, and reporting once they become waste. Producers must register, fund collection and treatment, meet collection and recycling-efficiency targets, and may discharge these duties through a producer responsibility organisation. EPR is the mechanism that internalises end-of-life costs and underpins the Regulation’s circular-economy goals.
EPR shifts the cost and organisation of waste battery collection and recycling onto producers, who often meet the obligation collectively through a producer responsibility organisation.