On October 28, the Working Group Meeting on Automotive Product EPR Policy Research, together with the “Automotive EPR Enterprise Tour” event, was held at Ningbo Jintian Copper (Group) Co., Ltd. in Ningbo.

 

Representatives from China Automotive Technology & Information Center (CATARC), Geely Auto, BYD, Toyota Motor China, GAC Group, Honda R&D, as well as well-known parts manufacturers including Bosch and CATL, gathered to discuss the implementation path of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for automotive products, and to inspect Jintian Copper’s advanced practices in automotive material recycling.

 

 

Policy Window: A Meeting That “Must Be Attended”

2026 marks the opening year of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, and a critical window for the global automotive industry’s low-carbon transition and reshaping of circular economy rules.

The EU’s Regulation on Circular Design of Vehicles and End-of-Life Vehicle Management and the Battery and Waste Battery Regulation form a combined policy force, posing systemic EPR compliance challenges for Chinese automakers going global. Domestically, the Ecological Environment Code and the Administrative Measures for the Recovery and Utilization of New Energy Vehicle Power Batteries also set clear requirements for EPR management and recycled material application.

 

 

Against this backdrop, the meeting drew 36 participants from 14 companies. Lou Guojun, President of Jintian Copper Business Unit 1, delivered the opening address. The meeting covered topics including domestic and international EPR policy developments, EU regulatory response, power battery recycling compliance, recycled material accounting and verification, and standards research. After the meeting, delegates visited Jintian Copper’s technology exhibition hall, recycled electrolytic copper production line, and high-precision copper strip line, gaining an in-depth look at low-carbon recycled copper products and technologies.

 

What Is EPR? Why Are Automakers Paying Attention?

EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) essentially requires producers to extend environmental responsibility from manufacturing to the full lifecycle including recycling and reuse. A product leaving the factory is not the end — how it is properly recovered and maximally recycled after disposal remains the producer’s responsibility.

For the automotive industry, EPR means a vehicle must be designed with its “afterlife” in mind — end-of-life dismantling, material recovery, and recycled material returning to new vehicles. Behind this are both EU compliance requirements for Chinese exporters and the intrinsic drive for green, low-carbon transformation of the automotive value chain.

Copper is one of the key materials in this circular loop.

 

Car to Car: Giving End-of-Life Vehicles a “New Life”

A highlight of the event was the launch ceremony for the “Car to Car” recycled copper material.

This is the first milestone of a pilot project jointly developed by CATARC, Geely Auto, and Jintian Copper — the first batch of automotive-grade recycled electrolytic copper rolled off the production line. It signifies that copper from end-of-life vehicles, after standardized recovery and recycling processing, returns to the automotive supply chain at automotive-grade quality, forming a closed loop of “from vehicles, to vehicles.”

 

 

The project was launched this July. Jintian Copper has now used the first batch of Geely-supplied scrap copper to produce the first batch of electrolytic copper under full traceability control. This electrolytic copper reaches a purity of 99.997%, and will be used as raw material for subsequent automotive-grade copper parts, followed by product validation and trial installation, before being introduced into suitable vehicle programs.

 

Deep in Recycled Copper: Jintian Copper’s Green Answer

With 40 years of dedication to copper processing, Jintian Copper consistently treats green and low-carbon development as the foundation of high-quality growth.

Compared to primary copper, Jintian’s recycled copper reduces carbon emissions by approximately 70%. Backed by the automotive recycled copper closed-loop project, Jintian Copper is working with supply chain partners to build a green application and traceability management system for automotive-grade recycled copper, ensuring traceable sources, traceable destinations, and controllable quality.

 

 

The company’s annual recycled copper processing capacity exceeds 570,000 tons. In the first half of 2026, sales of green, high-end, low-carbon recycled copper materials grew 168% year-on-year.

On ESG, Jintian Copper has published its ESG report for six consecutive years, systematically disclosing environmental, social, and governance performance. In green manufacturing, Jintian Copper has been recognized as a National Green Factory and a provincial “Zero-Waste Group,” and has obtained SCS Recycled Content Certification and GRS (Global Recycled Standard) certification. Multiple on-site solar projects have been built with a total installed capacity of 60.9 MW, generating over 70.49 million kWh annually.

 

 

At the industry level, Jintian Copper actively participates in national standards such as Recycled Copper Raw Materials, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute, became a founding member of NIO’s Supply Chain Sustainability Alliance, co-founded the “Automotive Supply Chain Sustainability Pioneer Alliance” with Volvo, and received the “2025 ESG Value Communication Award for Listed Companies.”

From new EU regulations to Chinese practice, from policy discussion to production line visit, this EPR tour to Jintian Copper is both a benchmarking of policy and standards, and a new departure for supply chain collaboration. Jintian Copper stands ready to work with automotive value chain partners to make every ton of copper “continuously regenerated,” driving together toward a greener future.