Notes on battery disposal
The following information is for those who use batteries or products with built-in batteries and no longer resell them in the form in which they were supplied (end-users):
1. Free return of used batteries
Batteries must not be disposed of with household waste. You are legally obliged to return used batteries so that proper disposal can be ensured. You can hand in used batteries at a municipal collection point or at local retailers. As a distributor of batteries, we are also obliged to take back used batteries, whereby our take-back obligation is limited to used batteries of the type that we carry or have carried as new batteries in our product range. Used batteries of the aforementioned type can therefore either be sent back to us with sufficient postage or handed in free of charge directly at our dispatch warehouse at the address given in the imprint.
2. Meaning of the battery symbols
Batteries are marked with the symbol of a crossed-out dustbin (see below). This symbol indicates that batteries must not be disposed of with household waste. For batteries that contain more than 0.0005 percent by mass of mercury, more than 0.002 percent by mass of cadmium or more than 0.004 percent by mass of lead, the chemical designation of the respective pollutant used is located below the dustbin symbol - "Cd" stands for cadmium, "Pb" for lead, and "Hg" for mercury.
3. Vehicle batteries
When selling vehicle batteries (these are batteries intended for starting, lighting or ignition of vehicles), the following special provisions apply: According to Section 10 of the German Battery Act (BattG), the seller is obliged to charge a deposit of 7.50 euros including VAT for each vehicle battery from end-users if the end-user does not return an old vehicle battery to the seller at the time of purchasing the new vehicle battery. The customer receives a deposit voucher when purchasing a vehicle battery. The customer can return the old vehicle battery to the seller to have the collected deposit reimbursed. Due to the Hazardous Goods Ordinance, it is not permitted to send the old vehicle battery to the seller. Alternatively, the customer can return the old vehicle battery to a collection point set up by the public waste disposal authority. If the old vehicle battery is not returned to the seller who collected the deposit, the collection agent according to Section 11 (3) BattG who takes back the old vehicle battery is obliged, upon request, to confirm the return to the end-user in writing or electronically without a deposit refund. In this case, the customer will receive a refund of the collected deposit from the seller, provided that he presents the seller with written or electronic proof of return according to Section 10 (1) sentence 4 BattG, which is not older than two weeks at the time of presentation.
https://www.batterie-zurueck.de/de/bewirtschaftungvonaltbatterien/