Total product responsibility
Stiftung GRS Batterien, as the manufacturers’ own take-back scheme, assumes product responsibility for all manufacturers and distributors in accordance with the German Battery Act (BattG). Stiftung GRS Batterien acts as a non-profit-making and non-discriminatory organisation that is available to all manufacturers in line with Section 7 BattG.
Day-to-day business operations of Stiftung GRS Batterien are undertaken by GRS Service GmbH, which provides their customers with efficient and safe solutions for taking back batteries for the sustainable fulfilment of legal product responsibility pertaining to battery producers and distributors.
General information – the take-back of batteries
GRS Batterien provides collection and transport containers for batteries for the retail sector, public waste management authorities, commercial operations and public bodies and carries out the collection, sorting and disposal of waste batteries free of charge. Containers are provided and batteries from devices are taken back for free from the collection points.
The battery manufacturers connected to the GRS take-back schemes meet their legal collection obligations with a collection rate of more than 50 per cent.
All these services are financed by the fees paid by the manufacturers and importers of batteries affiliated with GRS towards the cost of disposal.
Take-back of batteries in Germany
It is now widely known that waste batteries and rechargeable batteries are not to be disposed of along with normal household waste. In order for consumers to be able to return their batteries and rechargeable waste batteries properly, Stiftung GRS Batterien, together with the German Electro and Digital Industry Association, took over the free take-back and disposal of batteries when the German Battery Act (BattG) came into force in 1998.
Until January 2020, the non-profit-making organisation was the Joint Take-back System for Portable Batteries that was established by the Federal Environment Ministry in line with Section 6 of the German Battery Act.
Producers’ take-back scheme since 2020
Since 6 January 2020, following a change in statutory provisions, GRS has been a manufacturer-own take-back scheme in line with Section 7 BattG alongside four other manufacturers’ collection schemes: CCR Rebat, DS Entsorgung, ÖkoReCell and Ecobatt.
GRS continues to fulfil product responsibility for waste batteries from devices, including the collection, sorting and recycling of used batteries. As a non-profit-making and non-discriminatory organisation, as well as one that is available to all battery manufacturers, Stiftung GRS Batterien also runs different schemes for taking back industrial batteries.
The legal changes that came into force on 1 January 2021 are intended to herald fair competition in recycling. As part of this change, the Institute for the Joint Take-back System was disbanded. This meant that manufacturers no longer registered with the Federal Environment Ministry before launching a new product on the market. Instead, they now register with Elektro-Altgeräte Register (EAR), which loosely translates as Old Electronic Devices Register.
For consumers, nothing has changed; they can continue to return their batteries free of charge to the designated collection points.