Guidelines produced by the Interstate Working Party on Waste Processing (LAGA) on the disposal of end-of-life electrical and electronic waste

The German Interstate Working Party on Waste Processing (LAGA) has compiled a set of technical guidelines governing the environmentally compatible disposal of obsolete electrical and electronic equipment. The rules aim to achieve a significant improvement in the quality of the post-consumer processing of this type of waste. The guidelines, which were published in September 2000, represent a watershed in what as been up until now the unregulated disposal of waste electrical equipment.

The LAGA guidelines contain a separate section dealing with the disposal of end-of-life refrigerator and freezer appliances. The section stipulates that for the proper demanufacture of refrigerators and freezers, appropriate testing must be conducted to ensure compliance with the CFC recovery levels specified in the guidelines issued by the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA). These tests must be based on the method described in the RAL quality assurance standard GZ 728.