Take-back obligations as a distributor

As a distributor you can voluntarily take back waste electrical and electronic equipment that is used in private households from end users.

You have to take back electrical and electronic equipment if you:

either have retail space for electrical and electronic equipment that is at least 400 sqm in Germany, or
as a food distributor have a total retail area of at least 800 sqm and offer electrical and electronic equipment permanently or several times in a calendar year and make it available to the market.

You have to take back the electrical and electronic equipment as follows:

1:1-take-back: When selling a new electrical or electronic piece of equipment to an end user you have to take back a piece of waste equipment of the same type that in general fulfills the same functions as the new piece of equipment from this customer at the site of the sale or in direct proximity thereof, free of charge. The site of sale can also be the private household on delivery.
0:1-take-back: Even if the end user does not buy a new electronic or electrical piece of equipment from you they have the right that you take back up to three pieces of waste electrical and electronic equipment in the retail shop (or respectively in direct proximity thereof). Prerequisite for this is that the waste equipment is not larger than 25 cm in its outer measurements.

Take-back must not take place at the collection and handover sites of the public waste disposal authorities (e.g. not at the municipal recycling centers).

What to do with taken back waste equipment?

If you have to take back waste equipment as a distributor, you are only obligated to collect this waste equipment. You can hand over the taken back waste equipment either directly to the public waste disposal authorities (örE) (for example municipal recycling centers) or the producers for treatment and disposal.

If you choose not to use this option, then you yourself are obligated to prepare the taken-back electrical and electronic equipment for re-use, or to treat it according to the legal requirements and to recycle it. But please note that if you choose the second option you have to submit an annual statistics report.