Battery Producer Responsibility Organizations (PROs)
By Georgia & Molly
A producer responsibility organization (PRO), is a third party organization that can fulfill the responsibilities of waste management and recycling on behalf of producers. It is often a non-profit or an industrial collective. A PRO offers the following services to producers:
Collection Infrastructure: Setting up and maintaining the bins and transport systems that allow consumers and businesses to return spent batteries for free.
Recycling Management: Contracting with waste treatment facilities to ensure batteries are recycled according to the high material recovery targets (e.g., specific recovery rates for lithium, cobalt, and nickel).
Data Reporting: Aggregating data from all member companies and reporting the total "placed on market" vs. "collected" weights to national authorities.
Public Awareness: Funding and running educational campaigns to teach the public how and where to dispose of batteries.
When do you need one?
You need one if you are a producer and the first to place a battery on the market. You must register in every country where you sell batteries. Having an agreement with a PRO in Germany does not cover your sales in France.
Authorized Representatives (AR): As of August 2025, if your company is not physically based in the country where you are selling, you must typically appoint an Authorized Representative (often a service offered by the PRO) to handle your legal reporting.
A producer is free to fulfill the requirements on its own and is not forced to go through a PRO.
What does it cost?
The bulk of the cost is weight or number of batteries depending on the category and chemistry. Then some PROs have a start fee and/or an annual membership fee.
Here are some cost examples:
Annual membership fee Batteri-kretsen (Sweden): 15.000 sek
Start-fee and minimal cost per battery category, batribox (France): 200 euro
Price table for per kg cost from batribox:
EU Battery PRO List
Georgia & Molly is maintaining a list of PROs and the services they are providing. The list will be updated on a regular basis. If you find anything wrong or PROs that are missing please reach out to us at crew@georgiamolly.com.