Information on electrical and electronic (waste) equipment

The following information is intended for private households that use electrical and/or electronic equipment. Please follow these important instructions in the interest of environmentally sound disposal of old appliances and your own safety.

1. notes on the disposal of electrical and electronic (waste) equipment and on the meaning of the symbol according to Annex 3 to the Electrical and Electronic Equipment Act (ElektroG)

Owners of old appliances must dispose of them separately from unsorted municipal waste. WEEE may therefore not be disposed of as unsorted municipal waste and, in particular, does not belong in household waste. Instead, these old appliances must be collected separately and disposed of, for example, via local collection and return systems.

Owners of old appliances must also separate old batteries and accumulators that are not enclosed in the old appliance, as well as lamps that can be removed from the old appliance without destroying it, from the old appliance before handing it in at a collection point.

The latter does not apply if the WEEE is separated from other WEEE in accordance with Article 14 (4), fourth sentence, or (5), second and third sentences, within the framework of opting out by the public waste management authorities for the purpose of preparing it for reuse.

By means of the symbol according to Annex 3 to the ElektroG, owners can recognize old appliances that are to be collected separately from unsorted municipal waste at the end of their service life. The symbol for the separate collection of electrical and electronic equipment represents a crossed-out wheeled garbage can and is designed as follows:

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2. free take-back of waste equipment by distributors

Distributor (any natural or legal person or partnership offering or making available on the market electrical or electronic equipment) with a sales area for electrical and electronic equipment of at least 400 square meters (in the case of distribution using means of distance communication, instead with storage and shipping areas for electrical and electronic equipment of at least 400 square meters) and distributors of food products with a total sales area of at least 800 square meters , who offer and make available on the market electrical and electronic equipment several times per calendar year or on a permanent basis (in the case of distribution using means of distance communication, instead with total storage and shipping areas of at least 800 square meters), are obligated to end users to take back WEEE free of charge as follows:

a) Return/collection in the case of purchase of a new appliance and delivery to a private household.

Upon conclusion of a purchase contract for a new electrical or electronic appliance, the distributor is obliged to take back free of charge an old appliance of the same type that fulfills essentially the same functions as the new appliance.

If the place of the a private household, the take-back is carried out by a free collection. For this purpose, an old appliance of the same type with essentially the same functions can be handed over to the delivering transport company when the new appliance is delivered.

If the new device is sold exclusively by means of distance communication (Section 312c (2) of the German Civil Code), the following shall apply restrictively:

The free collection of an old device of the same type and function shall only take place if it is a device of category 1 (heat exchangers), 2 (screens, monitors, devices with screens with a surface area of more than 100 square centimeters) and/or 4 (large devices where at least one of the external dimensions is more than 50 centimeters).

If instead it is an old device of category 3, 5 and/or 6, a free pick-up does not take place and instead the following letter b) applies for the free return.

An overview of the equipment categories and the equipment covered in each case can be found here: https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/elektrog_2015/anlage_1.html.

b) Return in case of purchase of a new device and delivery elsewhere/return of small devices

When concluding a purchase contract for a new electrical appliance that is not delivered to a private household and selling a new appliance of categories 3, 5 and/or 6 exclusively by means of distance communication (Section 312c (2) of the German Civil Code) with delivery to a private household, there is the option of returning an old appliance of the same type that essentially fulfills the same functions as the new appliance to the distributor free of charge.

The same possibility exists independently of the purchase of a new electrical or electronic device also for old devices, which are not larger than 25 centimeters in any external dimension. In this case, the possibility of return by the end user to the distributor is limited to 3 old devices per type of equipment.

In case of distribution exclusively using

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