As of July 01, 2022, consumers can return their discarded electrical appliances free of charge to many food retailers, discounters and supermarkets. This means that the six-month transitional period of the revised Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act, which came into force in January this year, is now coming to an end. The aim is to make it easier for consumers to hand in old appliances by providing more collection points close to where they are used. This should lead to an improved collection rate, allowing more devices and their resources to be recycled.
These are further details:
- The free return of small waste electrical appliances such as cell phones, flashlights or electric toothbrushes is now possible for all consumers regardless of when they purchased the product.
- Food retailers, discounters and supermarkets that qualify as collection points must have a total sales area of at least 800 square meters and offer electrical appliances several times a year or on a permanent basis; the regular sale of LED lamps, for example, is sufficient for this purpose.
- With the improved and increased collection, the German government wants to ensure that the separately collected old appliances are recycled to a higher standard and that pollutants are increasingly removed from the material cycle.
Steffi Lemke, German Federal Minister for the Environment, commented: "Consumers should be able to return discarded electrical appliances as easily as possible, because this is how valuable resources can be recycled. Millions of old cell phones, flashlights or electric shavers are still stored forgotten in drawers or cupboards in German households. Often they can no longer be repaired and belong in a professional disposal. Only if old devices are collected properly can pollutants be reliably secured and valuable raw materials recovered. That's why we need easily accessible collection points. Supermarkets and discount stores offer the best conditions for this. This way, consumers can simply drop off their old electrical appliances when they go shopping for the week."
Source: BMUV
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