Sustainability 2021, 13, 11154. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011154 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability Article An Exploratory Study of the Policies and Legislative Perspectives on the End‐of‐Life of Lithium‐Ion Batteries from the Perspective of Producer Obligation Chiara Giosuè 1, *, Daniele Marchese 1 , Matteo Cavalletti 2 , Robertino Isidori 2 , Massimo Conti 3 , Simone Orcioni 3 , Maria Letizia Ruello 1 and Pierluigi Stipa 1 1 Department of Materials, Environmental Sciences and Urban Planning (SIMAU), Università Politecnica delle Marche, INSTM Research Unit, 60131 Ancona, Italy; d.marchese@staff.univpm.it (D.M.); m.l.ruello@staff.univpm.it (M.L.R.); p.stipa@staff.univpm.it (P.S.) 2 MIDAC S.p.A., Soave, 37038 Verona, Italy; matteo.cavalletti@midacbatteries.com (M.C.); isidori@midacbatteries.com (R.I.) 3 Department of Information Engineering (DII), Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy; m.conti@staff.univpm.it (M.C.); s.orcioni@staff.univpm.it (S.O.) * Correspondence: c.giosue@staff.univpm.it; Tel.: +39‐071‐220‐4726 Abstract: European self‐sufficiency in the battery sector is one of the major EU needs. The key lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) materials demand is expected to increase in the next decade as a consequence of the increment in the LIBs production and a massive amount of spent LIBs will flood global markets. Hence, these waste streams would be a potential source of secondary raw materials to be valorized, under the principle of circular economy. European governments first, and then companies in the battery sector second, are addressing many efforts in improving legislation on batteries and accumulators. This study explores the current legislative aspects, the main perspective from the producer’s point of view, and the possibility to guarantee a proper recycle of spent LIBs. A monitoring proposal by means of a survey has been carried out and the Italian context, which has been taken as an example of the European context, and it was used to evaluate the practical implication of the current legislation. The main result of the survey is that a specific identification as well as regulations for LIBs are needed. The benefit from a cradle‐to‐cradle circular economy is still far from the actual situation but several industrial examples and ongoing European projects show the importance and feasibility of the reuse (e.g., second life) and recycle of LIBs. Keywords: lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs); energy storage; Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR); European Union (EU) legislation; critical raw materials (CRM) 1. Introduction The demand for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs) is increasing worldwide due to their high efficiency as well as due to the versatility of rechargeable batteries [1]. This steep increase has called attention to several challenges that must be faced: on the one hand, the supply of raw materials, and on the other hand, the valorization of end‐of‐life products. In the case of the electric vehicles (EVs) market, the registration of passenger cars in the European Union (EU) has seen a double‐digit growth in most of the Member States. In 2016–2018, EVs comprised from 8.5% (Poland) to 33.4% (Norway) of passenger cars in European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries [2]. Figure 1 summarizes the total global volume of EVs predicted for 2050 as well as under different scenarios. In 2019, the number of electric and plug‐in hybrid cars reached 2 million (3% of the fleet) and it is predicted that it will hit 28 million in 2030 (31% of the fleet) [3,4]. However, the Citation: Giosuè, C.; Marchese, D.; Cavalletti, M. Isidori, R.; Conti, M.; Orcioni, S.; Ruello, M.L.; Stipa, P. An Exploratory Study on the Policies and Legislative Perspec‐tives on the End‐of‐Life of Lithium‐Ion Batteries from the Pro‐ducer Obligation. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11154. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011154 Academic Editor: Julia Kowal Received: 6 August 2021 Accepted: 1 October 2021 Published: 9 October 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses /by/4.0/).