As Waste Fires Surge to Three a Day, Germany Overhauls Chemical Storage and Competency Rules
Published on 07/17/2026 at 20:25 | Redaktion boerse-global.de
A fire that engulfed a recycling hall in early July, generating extreme temperatures within seconds, was triggered by a lithium-ion battery tossed into the general waste. That incident is far from isolated. Entsorgungsexperten (disposal specialists) report that Germany now sees an average of three fires per day in waste-treatment facilities, often sparked by batteries or mislabelled chemicals in paper and residual waste.
Only a few days later, on July 16, a cleaning company in Mannheim discharged an unauthorised agent into the municipal sewer network. The discharge caused material damage to pipelines and forced a hazardous?materials response from the local fire brigade. The two events underscore what regulators and safety bodies say is a persistent gap in how substances are handled from lab bench to disposal bin.
New guidelines that took effect in mid?July target exactly that gap. Aimed primarily at laboratories in the food, agricultural and environmental sectors, the rules govern the classification and storage of pure substances. They specify standard purity grades such as AR, HPLC and GC, and require that chemicals be sorted by compatible substance groups under controlled environmental conditions. Every container must carry complete labelling and a monitored expiry date. The directive applies to a wide industrial range: from the biocide 1,2?benzisothiazolin?3?one (BIT) to the halogen?free flame retardant DOPO and specialised crosslinkers used in rubber processing. Companies must maintain a precise internal register to minimise handling and disposal risks.
As these new guidelines show, hazardous substances can easily go unnoticed in daily operations — with serious legal and safety consequences. A free COSHH toolkit reveals where most companies underestimate these risks, providing 43 ready-to-use assessment templates and control checklists. Get the free COSHH Risk Assessment Toolkit
On July 15 the federal government announced a separate set of deregulation measures, including changes to the rules for pesticides. The proof of competence (Sachkundenachweis) required for handling plant?protection products will now be valid for six years instead of three. The extension is expected to relieve the agricultural sector by roughly €12 million a year. But the same package has stirred debate over a proposed relaxation of electrical?equipment testing obligations in workplaces. The Deutsche Gesetzliche Unfallversicherung (DGUV), the statutory accident insurance body, pointed out that Germany records around 2,500 electrical accidents at work each year and urged that protection standards not be lowered. It noted that testing intervals can already be adjusted on an individual, risk?oriented basis under current rules.
In highly regulated sectors, requirements are tightening rather than loosening. On July 17 a new laboratory costing €25 million opened in Darmstadt to centralise mandatory release and stability testing for biologics and cell therapies across the European Economic Area. The facility consolidates checks that are legally required for these advanced medicines.
For the water industry, revised guidelines for Technical Safety Management (TSM) have been in force since July 1. With roughly 500 checkpoints, the updated framework places stronger emphasis on cybersecurity and the use of artificial intelligence. Operators in the sector have until the end of September to adapt their documentation systems to the new resilience requirements.
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