Recycled Content (Cobalt, Lead, Lithium, Nickel): What the EU Battery Regulation Requires, for Which Batteries and From When

Documentation comes first.

The shares sit in Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 concerning batteries and waste batteries (OJ L 191, 28.7.2023), in force since 17 August 2023 (Article 96(1)) and applicable since 18 February 2024 (Article 96(2)).

The Regulation is directly applicable, so Article 8 binds manufacturers without national law. Article 8 belongs to Chapter II of the EU Battery Regulation.

Before any share applies, manufacturers must document recycled content from 18 August 2028 or 24 months after the date of entry into force of the delegated act under Article 8(1), third subparagraph, whichever is the latest.

That act had not been adopted as of 13 November 2026. Scope, dates, shares, the draft method, proof and duty holders follow below.

What Does Article 8 Require?

Article 8 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 requires manufacturers of certain batteries to document how much cobalt, lead, lithium and nickel in active materials was recovered from waste, and from 18 August 2031 to meet minimum shares of those recovered metals. The documentation covers each battery model, per year and per manufacturing plant (Article 8(1)).

Recycled content is a condition for market access: Article 5 requires batteries placed on the market or put into service to meet Articles 6 to 10, 12, 13 and 14 (consolidated text on EUR-Lex).

Article 8, "Recycled content in industrial batteries, electric vehicle batteries, LMT batteries and SLI batteries", sits among the other EU Battery Regulation requirements.

Which Batteries Must Document Recycled Content

Article 8(1) covers industrial batteries with a capacity greater than 2 kWh, except those with exclusively external storage, electric vehicle batteries and SLI batteries, in each case only where cobalt, lead, lithium or nickel is present in active materials. They also face the 2031 shares of Article 8(2).

LMT batteries follow a later track. Article 8(1), second subparagraph, makes them document recycled content from 18 August 2033, and Article 8(3) adds them to the minimum shares only from 18 August 2036. No share of the 2031 stage therefore applies to an LMT battery.

Two groups fall outside Article 8 entirely: portable batteries and industrial batteries with exclusively external storage. The five battery categories of Article 1(3) decide the rows of the table below, which sets out the documentation duty and both share stages for each of them.

Table 1: Recycled content duties across the five battery categories of Article 1(3); industrial batteries take two rows.

When Do the Recycled Content Obligations Apply?

Article 8 runs on one conditional date and three fixed dates: documentation from 18 August 2028 or 24 months after the entry into force of the delegated act on the calculation method, whichever is the latest; LMT documentation from 18 August 2033; and minimum shares from 18 August 2031 and 18 August 2036. Only the conditional date depends on the Commission.

Article 8(1), third subparagraph, required the Commission to adopt the method act by 18 August 2026, and that deadline passed without adoption. The 24-month period starts only once the act enters into force, so the documentation duty has no calendar date yet, and 18 August 2028 cannot serve as the application date on its own.

The share dates of Article 8(2) and (3) are fixed in the Regulation itself and do not move with the act. The table lists each recycled content date with its provision and status, and every other date of the act is set out in the EU Battery Regulation timeline.

Minimum Recycled Content Shares for 2031 and 2036

From 18 August 2031 the technical documentation of each covered battery must show at least 16 % recycled cobalt, 85 % recycled lead, 6 % recycled lithium and 6 % recycled nickel (Article 8(2)); from 18 August 2036 the minimums rise to 26 %, 85 %, 12 % and 15 % (Article 8(3)). Each metal carries its own minimum.

Lead is the one metal whose minimum stays at 85 % in both stages, and LMT batteries join only the second stage, as set out above.

Each share applies only to a metal the battery contains in active materials, so a battery without nickel in active materials carries no nickel share. The table sets out each metal with its source.

Which Recovered Material Counts Towards the Share

Cobalt, lithium and nickel count only when recovered from battery manufacturing waste or post-consumer waste and present in active materials, while lead counts when the lead present in the battery is recovered from waste (Article 8(1)). Lead therefore draws on any waste, not only on the two named streams.

Article 3(1), point (5), defines an active material as "a material which reacts chemically to produce electric energy when the battery cell discharges or to store electric energy when the battery is being charged". For cobalt, lithium and nickel, only recovered metal inside this material counts towards the share.

Article 3(1), point (51), defines battery manufacturing waste as "the materials or objects rejected during the battery manufacturing process, which cannot be re-used as an integral part in the same process and need to be recycled". Scrap rejected during battery manufacturing therefore counts alongside post-consumer waste for those three metals.

Recycled content differs from recycling efficiency. Recycled content measures recovered metal going into new batteries, while recycling efficiency and material recovery under Article 71 and Annex XII measure what recycling processes achieve from waste batteries; those figures are set out under battery recycling targets.

The Recycled Content Delegated Act: Draft Status as of 13 November 2026

As of 13 November 2026 the Commission has not adopted the delegated act under Article 8(1), third subparagraph, that sets the method for calculating and verifying recycled content and the format of the documentation; a draft (Ares(2026)7823470) was published on 12 August 2026 and is in inter-service consultation. A draft binds no manufacturer.

Its draft title names the methodology for the calculation and verification of cobalt, nickel, lithium and lead recycled content in certain batteries and the format for its documentation. Besides the statutory deadline set out above, the Commission's own planning foresaw adoption in the third quarter of 2026, which also passed.

The feedback period on Have Your Say initiative 14858 closed on 9 September 2026 with 70 responses. The draft's explanatory memorandum records that the expert group on waste was consulted on 15 October 2025. The status of every secondary act is collected under battery regulation delegated acts.

Three acts had been adopted under the Regulation as of 13 November 2026: Delegated Regulations (EU) 2025/606 and 2026/1770 and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/2289. None of them concerns recycled content, so the documentation date still follows the conditional formula set out above.

What the Draft Calculation Method Proposes

The draft, which is not law, proposes a plant-level mass balance in which recycled cobalt, lithium, nickel and lead are traced exclusively through documentation and allocated as credits under eligible contracts.

Credits would not be carried over to the next accounting period or transferred between facilities or companies, and an accounting period would last at most 12 months.

The draft proposes a correction factor of 1.3 for lithium, nickel and cobalt recycled in Union installations with all recycling steps in the Union, applied once, capped at 100 % and available until 31 December 2036. The table collects all proposed elements.

How the Recycled Content Share Is Verified and Disclosed

Recycled content is proven through a notified body: Article 17(2) requires Module D1 for series production or Module G for non-series batteries, both with a notified body, from 12 months after the first publication of the list of notified bodies under Article 30(2).

NANDO listed five such bodies on 12 November 2026, as explained under notified bodies under the Battery Regulation.

Under Module D1 the technical documentation includes a study supporting the recycled content share (Annex VIII, Part B, point 2(i)). The notified body's assessment visit checks the reliability of the recycled content data (point 5.3), and the carbon footprint follows the same notified-body route under Article 17(2).

Annex XIII, point 1(e), puts the recycled content information of the Article 8(1) documentation in the public part of the battery passport. Each LMT battery, each industrial battery with a capacity greater than 2 kWh and each electric vehicle battery needs a passport from 18 February 2027 (Article 77(1)).

The Commission's non-binding passport guidance (version 3.2, 19 October 2026) lists data points 20 to 23, on recycled metals, as not to be filled as of February 2027.

SLI batteries carry no passport; from 18 February 2027 their QR code gives access to the amount of cobalt, lead, lithium or nickel recovered from waste in active materials (Article 13(6)(c)).

Who Carries the Recycled Content Duty

The manufacturer carries the recycled content duty, because Article 38(1) requires it to design and manufacture each battery in line with Articles 6 to 10, which include Article 8. It draws up the technical documentation and the EU declaration of conformity and keeps both for 10 years (Article 38(2) to (4)), among the wider battery manufacturer obligations.

Importers verify the conformity assessment and the technical documentation before placing a battery on the market (Article 41(1) and (2)). An authorised representative cannot take over Article 38(1) or drawing up the technical documentation (Article 40(2)). These Chapter VI duties already apply (Article 96(2), point (b)).

How to Meet the Recycled Content Requirements

Recycled content compliance starts with the battery category and ends with a notified body's assessment, so the data trail from recycler to cell plant has to exist before the documentation duty applies. The six steps below follow that order, from scope to disclosure.

1. Confirm which battery category applies and whether cobalt, lead, lithium or nickel is present in active materials.
2. Map suppliers of recovered metal and keep purchase records per plant.
3. Record the recycled share for each battery model, per year and per manufacturing plant (Article 8(1)).
4. Prepare the recycled content study for the technical documentation (Annex VIII, Part B, point 2(i)).
5. Plan Module D1 or G with a notified body (Article 17(2)) in the battery conformity assessment.
6. Prepare the passport point 1(e) data or the SLI QR code content for 18 February 2027.

The method act is still a draft, so none of its rules binds a manufacturer today. Records kept by plant, model and year, with supplier evidence, can be mapped to the final documentation format once the Commission adopts the act.

Need help with recycled content documentation? The full sequence by role and category is set out under the battery regulation compliance programme.

Exemptions, the Target Review and Proposed Changes

Article 8 does not apply to batteries that have been prepared for re-use, prepared for repurposing, repurposed or remanufactured where they were already placed on the market or put into service before that operation (Article 8(4)). This second-life exemption covers Article 8(1) to (3); the wider rules for second-life batteries are collected separately.

Article 8(5) builds a review into the shares. By 31 December 2028 the Commission must assess the availability of recovered cobalt, lead, lithium and nickel, and by 18 August 2029 it may adopt a delegated act amending the 2031 and 2036 minimum shares where that assessment justifies it.

Article 8(6) empowers the Commission to add other materials, with minimum shares, by delegated act; no such act had been adopted as of 13 November 2026. Recycled content rules for other products are set under the separate EU ecodesign framework, not under Article 8.

The proposal COM(2025) 981 of 10 December 2025 (procedure 2025/0397(COD)) is pending at the stage "Awaiting committee decision", indicative plenary 14 December 2026 (OEIL, as of 13 November 2026). Its Commission text does not amend Article 8; pending proposals are tracked under battery regulation amendments.

Recycled Content Questions

Five questions recur about recycled content under the Regulation.

Do portable batteries need recycled content?

No: Article 8 covers industrial batteries with a capacity greater than 2 kWh (except those with exclusively external storage), electric vehicle batteries and SLI batteries, and LMT batteries from 18 August 2033 and 18 August 2036. Portable batteries have no recycled content duty under the Regulation.

Is recycled content documentation required now?

No: documentation applies from 18 August 2028 or 24 months after the date of entry into force of the delegated act under Article 8(1), third subparagraph, whichever is the latest, and that act had not been adopted as of 13 November 2026. LMT batteries document from 18 August 2033.

Is recycled content the same as recycling efficiency?

No: recycled content (Article 8) is the share of recovered metal in a new battery, while recycling efficiency and material recovery (Article 71, Annex XII) measure what recycling processes achieve from waste batteries. Article 8 itself sets no recycling efficiency figure.

Which categories join the shares only in 2036?

LMT batteries: they document recycled content from 18 August 2033 and meet minimum shares only from 18 August 2036 (Article 8(1), second subparagraph, and Article 8(3)). No 2031 share applies to them, and they are the only category that Article 8(3) adds.

Does battery manufacturing scrap count as recycled content?

Yes for cobalt, lithium and nickel: battery manufacturing waste under Article 3(1), point (51), counts alongside post-consumer waste when the metal is present in active materials. For lead, the lead present in the battery counts when it is recovered from waste (Article 8(1)).