Disposing of advertising banners: what companies need to know

After every campaign the same question arises: where do the old banners go? Disposing of advertising banners is not as simple for companies as throwing a bag into general waste, because commercial waste is subject to different rules from household waste.

Disposing of advertising banners: what the German Commercial Waste Ordinance requires

Most advertising banners consist of PVC-coated polyester fabric, a composite of two firmly bonded components. That makes banners durable and, at the end, hard to recover.

For companies, the German Commercial Waste Ordinance (Gewerbeabfallverordnung) applies. It stipulates that plastics are to be kept separate and are to be sent as a priority for preparation for reuse or for recycling. Only when that is not technically possible or is economically unreasonable may mixed collection take place, and the mixture must then go to a pre-treatment facility.

In practice this means banners do not belong in the general waste container in the yard. Depending on quantity, it is drop-off at a recycling centre or collection by a waste contractor. The applicable waste code is determined by the contractor, because it depends on composition and origin.

Why recycling rarely happens with banners

The carrier fabric and the coating would have to be separated, which is demanding. Take-back schemes run by individual manufacturers exist, but they cover only a small part of the market, and the banner then becomes floor matting or grass pavers. Technically that is downcycling, and we have described elsewhere what distinguishes it from recycling.

In reality a large share ends up in energy recovery. The material burns, the energy is used, the material itself is gone.

The stage above

The European waste hierarchy places reuse above recycling, and upcycling belongs to reuse. With banners this stage can be reached, because the material brings exactly the properties needed for bags: tear-resistant, waterproof, dimensionally stable.

A banner processed into backpacks, toiletry bags or laptop sleeves leaves the waste stream. No disposal item arises but a product, and instead of an invoice from the waste contractor there is a number of products in the warehouse at the end that would otherwise have been bought in.

When disposal is the right answer

Not every banner can be processed further. Heavily weathered material that has become brittle, banners with large tears and chemically contaminated tarpaulins from industrial environments belong in disposal.

As a rule of thumb: if you would still hang the banner up, it can be processed.