Sustainista

Call for Partners · Battery Take-Back

Turn your retired batteries from a high-cost liability into a high-impact second life

We take retired lithium-ion packs off your hands — at zero or negative cost to you — and give them a traceable, DPP-documented second life in clean light mobility. A Sustainista venture for the circular battery economy.

Storing retired batteries is expensive, hazardous and legally complex

If you operate an electric fleet, manage utility assets or manufacture EVs, you are likely sitting on a growing volume of retired lithium-ion batteries.

The Storage Trap

Keeping retired packs in storage is a massive drain on space, requires expensive safety measures, and carries hazardous material risks.

The Regulatory Squeeze

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 brings strict Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) liabilities and makes the Digital Battery Passport mandatory from 18 February 2027 for EV, light-transport and industrial batteries above 2 kWh. Doing nothing is no longer an option.

The Cost

Right now, you are facing substantial fees just to dispose of or recycle these assets — pure expense, zero return.

8–10 yrs

typical first life of an EV battery — with ~2/3 of capacity remaining

~185 GWh

EV batteries forecast to be available for second life in 2030

up to 70%

cost advantage of repurposed packs vs. new batteries (2025)

18 Feb 2027

Digital Battery Passport mandatory (Regulation (EU) 2023/1542)

Sources: Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 · industry end-of-life baseline forecasts (Circular Energy Storage / market research)

The solution

We take them off your hands — at zero or negative cost to you

A seamless, sustainable exit strategy for your retired battery assets.

Complete Liability Relief

We take retired battery packs directly off your hands, relieving you of your end-of-life (EoL) and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compliance burdens.

From Waste to Social Impact

Instead of letting your batteries flow straight into low-impact stationary storage, we rebuild them into AI-managed traction packs for low-speed light mobility — e-trikes and town shuttles — displacing fossil-fuel emissions where it matters most.

Boost Your ESG Reporting

Our built-in Digital Product Passport (DPP) layer gives you fully traceable, audited data on exactly how much CO₂ your batteries save in their second life — premium data you can plug directly into your corporate ESG reports.

Guaranteed Circularity

The batteries never leave our closed-loop custody. At their true end-of-life, certified in-EU partners recover the critical raw materials — lithium, nickel, cobalt and copper — in line with the EU targets of 50% lithium recovery by end-2027 and 80% by end-2031.

Who we partner with

We are aggregating feedstocks across Europe

We are looking to establish preferential take-back agreements with:

1. Commercial & Delivery Fleet Operators

Logistics companies, service fleets and last-mile delivery providers with electric vehicles.

2. EV & Micromobility OEMs

Manufacturers looking for a certified, circular take-back partner for their battery lines.

3. Public Transport & Municipal Operators

Cities and local transit authorities phasing out early-generation electric buses or utility vehicles.

4. Battery Distributors & Aggregators

Anyone managing surplus, returned or degraded lithium-ion cells.

Offload your battery liabilities. Power the future of clean mobility.

Let's discuss how we can turn your storage liabilities into a showcase circular-economy story.

Sustainista is work-package leader for circular economy and the Digital Product Passport in the FFG-funded PACE-DPP research project and operates the ELECTRO battery intelligence platform.

Hubert Forster

Circular Economy & DPP Expert · Sustainista

hubert@sustainista.net
Start the conversation
Call for Partners — Battery Take-Back | Sustainista | Sustainista