Electrical and electronic equipment – information for private households

The German Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG) contains a large number of requirements for handling electrical and electronic equipment. The most important ones are summarised here.

1. Separate collection of waste equipment

Electrical and electronic equipment that has become waste is referred to as waste equipment. Owners of waste equipment must dispose of it separately from unsorted municipal waste. In particular, waste equipment does not belong in household waste but in special collection and return systems.

2. Batteries, rechargeable batteries and lamps

Owners of waste equipment must, as a rule, separate spent batteries and accumulators that are not enclosed in the device, as well as lamps that can be removed from the device without destroying them, before handing it in at a collection point. This does not apply where waste equipment is prepared for re-use with the involvement of a public waste management authority.

3. Ways to return waste equipment

Owners of waste equipment from private households can hand it in free of charge at the collection points of the public waste management authorities or at the take-back points set up by manufacturers or distributors within the meaning of the ElektroG. You can find a take-back point near you at: www.take-e-back.de
Shops with a sales area of at least 400 m² for electrical and electronic equipment, as well as grocery shops with a total sales area of at least 800 m² that offer electrical and electronic equipment several times a year or permanently, are obliged to take back equipment. This also applies to distance selling if the storage and dispatch areas for electrical and electronic equipment amount to at least 400 m² or the total storage and dispatch areas amount to at least 800 m². Distance sellers obliged to take back equipment must generally ensure suitable return options within a reasonable distance of the end user.
Free return of a waste device to obligated distributors is possible, among other things, when a new device of the same type that essentially fulfils the same functions is supplied to an end user. If a new device is delivered to a private household, the waste device of the same type can also be handed over there for free collection; for distance selling, this applies to devices of categories 1, 2 or 4 pursuant to Section 2 (1) ElektroG, namely "heat exchangers", "display devices" or "large devices" (the latter with at least one external dimension exceeding 50 centimetres). End users are asked about their intention to return a device when concluding a purchase contract. In addition, waste devices with no external dimension larger than 25 centimetres can be returned free of charge at distributors' collection points regardless of the purchase of a new device, limited to three waste devices per device type.

4. Data protection notice

Waste equipment often contains sensitive personal data. This applies in particular to information and telecommunications technology devices such as computers and smartphones. In your own interest, please note that each end user is responsible for deleting the data on the waste equipment to be disposed of.

5. Meaning of the "crossed-out wheelie bin" symbol

The symbol of a crossed-out wheelie bin regularly depicted on electrical and electronic equipment

indicates that the device in question must be collected separately from unsorted municipal waste at the end of its service life.

6. Note on waste prevention

Under the provisions of Directive 2008/98/EU on waste and its implementation in the legislation of the member states of the European Union, waste prevention measures generally take precedence over waste management measures. For electrical and electronic equipment, waste prevention measures include, in particular, extending the service life by repairing defective devices and selling functional used devices instead of sending them for disposal. Further information can be found in the German federal waste prevention programme with the participation of the federal states:

https://www.bmu.de/publikation/abfallvermeidungsprogramm-des-bundes-unter-beteiligung-der-laender/