Where can I dispose of electronics for free in Berlin?

At any of the 14 BSR recycling yards, which take every electrical device from a Berlin household at no cost. Small devices up to 25 cm can also go to big supermarkets, drugstores and electronics stores with no purchase.

Do supermarkets in Berlin take back old electronics?

Yes, if the store has at least 800 m² of sales floor and sells electrical devices during the year. It must take up to three small devices per type, none longer than 25 cm on any side, free and without a purchase. Look for the box near the entrance or the bottle return.

Where do I put an old vape in Berlin?

Back into any shop that sells vapes. Since 1 July 2026 every seller of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco devices, including Spätis, kiosks and petrol stations, must take used ones back free, any brand, with nothing to buy. Never put one in the yellow or grey bin.

How do I dispose of batteries in Berlin?

Drop them in the collection box of any shop that sells batteries, whatever the brand. Recycling yards take them too. Tape the poles of lithium and rechargeable cells first, because loose cells start fires in bins and trucks.

Is the BSR recycling yard free for electrical devices?

Yes. Electrical devices from Berlin households are free with no quantity cap for normal household amounts. If you live outside Berlin the yard can ask for proof that the waste comes from Berlin.

How do I get rid of an old fridge or washing machine in Berlin?

The easiest door is the shop selling you the new one: a store with 400 m² of electricals must take the old one back free when you buy a like-for-like device, and collection is free if they deliver. Otherwise use a yard, a BSR Kieztag, or add it to a booked bulky collection.

Can old light bulbs go in the household waste?

Only old filament and halogen bulbs. LED and energy-saving bulbs are electrical devices: take them to a collection box or a recycling yard, and wrap energy-saving bulbs so they do not break.

Do I have to delete my data before recycling a phone or laptop?

Yes. Clearing personal data is your responsibility, not the recycler's. Sign out of your accounts, switch off the device lock, reset it and take out the SIM and memory card before it leaves the flat.

E-Waste in Berlin: Which Door Takes It for Free

Yusuf Ucuz

Oct 18

7 min read

Every Berlin flat has the drawer. Three chargers for phones nobody owns any more, a tangle of cables, a dead vape a guest left on the balcony, AA batteries of unknown age, and somewhere at the back a power bank that has started to bulge. Next to the fridge stands a kettle that stopped boiling in August. None of it can go in the yellow bin and none of it should go in the grey one, so it stays.

I kept a drawer like that for two years because I thought getting rid of it meant a car and a Saturday at a recycling yard. It does not. Most of it can leave on the way to buy bread, for free, and the rules that decide which door takes what changed again this summer.

E-waste in Berlin: the 25 cm line decides the door

German law splits your old electronics into two groups, and the dividing line is a ruler. Under the ElektroG take-back rules, a shop that has to take devices back must accept small devices with no side longer than 25 cm, up to three per type, free and with nothing to buy. A phone, a shaver, a remote, headphones, a toaster, an LED bulb: all of these fit.

Anything bigger than 25 cm on any side, a laptop, a microwave, a television, a washing machine, only has to be taken back when you buy a new device of the same kind in that shop. Without a purchase, the free door for those is a BSR recycling yard.

Which shops are on the hook:

Big supermarkets, discounters and drugstores with at least 800 m² of sales floor that sell electrical devices during the year. That covers most of the large chains. The box usually stands at the entrance, by the bottle return or at the information desk.
Electronics stores with at least 400 m² of floor space for electricals, which means the big chains and some DIY stores.
Online shops with the same storage areas. They have to offer a free way back, such as a return label, a pickup or a drop-off point within reasonable distance.

You need no receipt, and it does not matter where you bought the device. In practice the boxes are not always there: when the Deutsche Umwelthilfe tested supermarkets and drugstores, only about half of the stores that were obliged met the take-back rules. If a store with a box refuses a small device, ask for the manager. If a big store has no box at all, the yard is the reliable fallback.

Vapes go back to the Späti now

The one rule that changed this year affects the most common item in the drawer. Since 1 July 2026, every shop that sells e-cigarettes or heated tobacco devices must take used ones back for free, whatever the brand, with nothing to buy, and there is no minimum shop size. The Brandenburg environment ministry put it plainly when the rule came in: you can return an old vape anywhere vapes are sold, even where you did not buy it. The same law applies in Berlin.

The red and yellow front of a Spätkauf in Kreuzberg near Mehringdamm, with advertising for coffee, tobacco and prepaid SIM cards and a cash machine beside the door

A Späti in Kreuzberg near Mehringdamm. If it sells vapes, it has had to take used ones back since 1 July 2026.

That means the Späti on your corner, the kiosk at the station and the petrol station are all valid drop-off points for disposable and refillable vapes. Shops have to put up a sign at the take-back point. If there is no sign, ask at the till; the duty applies either way.

Used disposable vapes in pink, green and red collected in a tin during a neighbourhood clean-up, next to other litter

Disposable vapes picked up during a neighbourhood clean-up. Each one holds a lithium cell that can start a fire in a bin or a truck.

Do not crush a vape or pull it apart to get at the battery. Hand it over whole.

Batteries and power banks: tape first, then any shop

Loose batteries follow their own law, and it is even simpler. Under section 14 of the battery law, every shop that sells portable batteries must take used ones back for free, whatever the chemistry, brand or size. In Berlin that is almost every supermarket, every drugstore and every DIY store. The box is usually by the till.

A grey street-side collection bin for used batteries with an orange label reading Altbatterien, standing on a post beside a lawn

A public battery bin in Karlsruhe. In Berlin the same job is done by the battery box by the till in most supermarkets and drugstores.

The step people skip is the tape. A lithium cell with exposed poles can short against a coin or another battery and catch fire. Put a strip of clear tape over the poles of every lithium and rechargeable battery before it goes in the box, and tape the ports of power banks. The BSR asks yard visitors to take batteries out of devices before they arrive, because of the fire risk. A swollen or warm power bank does not go in any box. Put it in a jar of sand and take it straight to a yard.

E-bike and e-scooter batteries count as batteries too. Shops that sell them must take old ones back, and so must the yards. Hand them to a person rather than leaving them in a container.

Find your door for the thing in your hand

Pick the device you want to get rid of. The tool shows what to do before it leaves the flat, which door takes it for free in the order I would try them, and which of the 14 yards on the map fit it.

When the BSR recycling yard is the right answer

The yard is the door that never says no. All electrical devices from Berlin households are free, from phones to fridges, and the BSR fee list puts no quantity cap on electrical devices for normal household amounts. Bulky waste has a three cubic metre limit; electricals do not. The BSR's own example: someone arrives with four cubic metres of furniture and a fridge, and the fridge is accepted while the furniture is turned away.

Orange skips and grey containers around an empty yard at the BSR recycling yard on Ilsenburger Straße in Charlottenburg, with autumn trees and apartment blocks behind

The BSR recycling yard on Ilsenburger Straße in Charlottenburg. Electrical devices go in their own containers, batteries and lamps separately.

What to know before you drive:

There are 14 yards, open Monday to Saturday and never on Sunday. The yard on Berliner Straße in Wilmersdorf is closed for building work until 14 November 2026, and BSR warns of longer queues at Behmstraße because of road works.
Only waste from Berlin households. If you live outside Berlin, the staff can ask for proof that it comes from a Berlin flat.
Five yards have a used-goods counter: Hegauer Weg, Lengeder Straße, Ostpreußendamm, Gradestraße and Rahnsdorfer Straße. A lamp or radio that still works goes there and on to NochMall, the BSR second-hand store.
Ignore the men at the gate. BSR explicitly warns about illegal traders waiting outside yards to take devices off you. They pick out the metal and dump the rest, often abroad.

If a device just needs a new switch or cable, try a Repair Café before any of this.

Big appliances: let the delivery van take the old one

For a fridge, a washing machine or a cooker, the cheapest door is the shop selling you the new one. A store with 400 m² of electricals has to take the old device back free when you buy a like-for-like replacement, and if it delivers the new one, collecting the old one is free too. Ask for it when you order, not when the van is at the door.

Old fridges, freezers and other white goods stacked high in a collection hall waiting to be taken apart

Old fridges and white goods stacked in a collection hall. Each one holds a cooling circuit that has to stay closed until a recycler drains it.

Without a new purchase you have two more free options. A BSR Kieztag brings a pop-up yard to a street in your district for a morning and takes electrical devices and white goods free, though not batteries. And if you are booking a bulky collection anyway, BSR takes electrical devices along at no extra charge. The collection itself costs money, which is why I only use it when a sofa or wardrobe is going too. My post on bulky waste in Berlin has the fees and the three cubic metre rule.

Keep a fridge upright and defrost it a day before it goes. A damaged cooling circuit is the one thing that turns an old fridge into a real environmental problem.

Before anything leaves the flat

Three habits make all of the above safe:

Wipe it yourself. Deleting personal data is your responsibility, not the recycler's. Sign out of your accounts, switch off the find-my-device lock, factory reset, and take out the SIM and memory card.
Pull the batteries. If a battery comes out without tools, take it out, tape it and drop it in a battery box. If it is built in, hand in the device whole.
Sort the light bulbs. Only old filament and halogen bulbs belong in the grey bin. LED and energy-saving bulbs are electrical devices; wrap energy-saving bulbs so they do not break.

My e-waste plan for this week

Empty the drawer onto the table and sort it into three piles: batteries and vapes, small devices under 25 cm, and the big things. Tape the batteries tonight. Take the first two piles to the supermarket or drugstore you already pass, and drop the vape at the Späti on the way. The big pile waits for the next new appliance, the next Kieztag in your district, or one Saturday morning at the nearest yard.

When the take-back rules change again, or BSR reopens Berliner Straße and moves its Kieztage, my weekly newsletter is where I will say so.

Image credits

Source and licence details for the 5 photographs used in this article.

The BSR recycling yard at Am Dachsbau in Heiligensee: Fridolin freudenfett, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A Spätkauf in Kreuzberg near Mehringdamm: Nicolas Bouliane, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A public battery collection bin in Karlsruhe: Rza3100, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The BSR recycling yard on Ilsenburger Straße in Charlottenburg: Fridolin freudenfett, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Old fridges and white goods stacked in a collection hall: JosefLehmkuhl, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.