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Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
Environment
RFI

EU push for economic sovereinty as rules on recycling batteries come into force

An employee at the VoltR, the French company that makes lithium batteries with second life battery cells, in Verrieres-en-Anjou, 10 June 2025. © Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP

All batteries in Europe, whatever their size, must now be recycled, as a European regulation comes into force requiring companies to cover the cost of their products' entire life-cycles.

The regulation, adopted in 2023 as a key pillar of the European Green Deal, is part of the European Union's drive to reduce imports of critical raw materials, such as lithium and cobalt and instead use its own, whether from new mines or recuperated from old devices.

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