In the future, citizens should also be able to hand in old electrical appliances such as razors or cell phones in discounters and supermarkets. A corresponding change in the law is on the agenda of the Federal Cabinet this Wednesday. The prerequisite is that the retail space is larger than 800 square meters and that you sell electrical appliances yourself several times a year. “This makes it much easier to bring back smaller electrical appliances in everyday life,” said Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) of the German Press Agency. Bundestag and Bundesrat still have to agree, the rules are to come into force first 2022.

Obligation to take back small devices Up to an edge length of 25 Centimeters, the right to a return should not depend on whether customers also buy a new device. The shops must definitely accept the disused calculator or power bank – even if they were bought elsewhere. For larger devices, customers will have to buy a new one in order to hand over the old one – for example, if a supermarket offers TVs as part of a campaign.

Online retailers are also faced with new obligations: “In future, retailers will have to take back and recycle old electrical appliances free of charge and without any complications,” Schulze told the dpa. “In future, large retailers, whether online or offline, will no longer be able to sell electrical appliances if they do not take them back.” It is also planned that online sellers will have to actively offer to take an old device with them. Online marketplaces should have to check whether the providers they represent also participate in the recycling system.

Germany does not meet the requirements The background to this is that so far fewer old electrical appliances have been collected in Germany than actually prescribed by the EU. 2018 it was 43, 1 percent based on the units sold in the three previous years, but the rate was 43 percent. Since 2019 it has even been 65 percent, official figures for the collection does not exist yet. Citizens are actually obliged to separate their rubbish – this also means that electronic waste does not belong in the residual waste, in the yellow bin or in the yellow sack. However, nobody controls household waste, there is no penalty.

Against the background of stricter collection obligations, from summer 2016 the stationary and Online retailers are more obliged to take back electronic waste in order to save consumers the trip to the recycling center. So far, the take-back obligation for shops only applies if they have a sales area for electrical and electronic equipment of at least 400 square meters in online trading storage and shipping areas apply.

(mho)