Disposing of pollutants

What to do with substances like glue, oil, and pesticides?

After a big spring clean or home-improvement project, you may find yourself left with pollutants such as chemicals, paints, or half-used tubes of glue that you do not know what to do with. Chemicals of this kind cannot be put in your normal household waste bins.

Pollutants can be taken to either Kirchheim or Wieblingen recycling yard. Note that the city’s smaller recycling yards in Emmertsgrund, Handschuhsheim and Ziegelhausen cannot accept pollutants.  

Kirchheim recycling yard: The central collection point for pollutants

Recyclinghof Kirchheim
Oftersheimer Weg
Opening times: Monday to Friday 8 am to 4 pm, Saturdays 8 am to 3 pm

Wherever possible, please bring pollutants and pollutant-containing products in their original containers and unmixed with any other substances. If you no longer have the original containers, we ask that you label the containers and seal them so that they cannot leak.

What to do with medicines and leftover paint?

Unused medicines simply go in your residual waste bin (Restmülltonne). The same applies to old, dried-up paint. Just bang the dry paint out of the pot into the bin, and put the empty pot in your yellow bag/yellow bin. 

Prevention is better than cure

Before buying pollutant-containing products, you may wish to briefly consider whether an eco-friendlier alternative is available, or whether a substitute material would do the same job. The ‘blue angel’ (Der Blaue Engel) symbol is a useful indication that a product is kind on the environment. Der Blaue Engel eco-label was launched by the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) and the German Institute for Quality Assurance and Labelling (RAL) to highlight to consumers particularly environmentally-friendly products.  

Look out for the blue angel symbol when choosing what products to buy. The number of products bearing the blue angel mark is growing every year. This gives manufacturers an incentive to think about environmental aspects when designing and making their products.