Maritime distress signalling equipment: New Year's Eve fireworks with expired pyrotechnics?

If you want to buy signal rockets, whether with or without a parachute, you are purchasing "pyrotechnic distress signalling devices of category P2" and need the so-called pyro licence, the certificate of competence (FKN) in accordance with the Explosives Act (SprengG). This authorises "the purchase and transport of category P2 signalling devices that require a permit".

Question 15 of 60 in the examination catalogue is "What do you do with superimposed pyrotechnic distress signals?" The correct answer is: "Return them to the retailer or hand them over to delabelling companies (never use them as fireworks)."

Anyone wishing to purchase signalling devices, hand flares or smoke signals for on-board use only needs to be of legal age and does not need a pyro licence, but these signalling devices are also subject to the Explosives Act and the answer to question 15 also applies to them.

But what exactly does that mean? And why not burn it on New Year's Eve?

On the subject of distress signalling equipment:

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Anyone who fires firecrackers with distress signalling devices is liable to prosecution

It is in the nature of things that distress signals are only permitted in an emergency at sea. Anyone who blows them up for fun will be penalised.

The legislator has regulated the case in Section 40 (1) No. 3 in conjunction with Section 27 (1) No. 2 and Section 7 (1) SprengG and provides for a prison sentence of up to three years or a fine:

Anyone wishing to handle explosive substances in cases other than those specified in § 7 (commercially, independently as part of a commercial enterprise or an agricultural or forestry business or when employing workers) requires a licence. Anyone who acquires or handles explosive substances without the required licence in contravention of Section 27 (1) will be punished with Imprisonment for up to three years or with Fine penalised.

If he endangers objects such as cars or houses, or even other people, the penalties under Section 40(3) of the Explosives Act even allow a prison sentence of up to five years:

Any person who knowingly endangers the life or limb of another person or property of significant value by committing one of the acts specified in subsections 1 or 2 shall be liable to a custodial sentence not exceeding five years or to a monetary penalty.

Getting rid of distress signalling equipment is not that easy

Burning expired signalling devices on New Year's Eve is therefore not recommended. And it should go without saying that explosives do not belong in household waste. So where to put them?

There is a widespread notion that surplus distress signalling equipment can simply be handed in to specialist dealers, collection points at marinas, recycling centres or even the fire brigade.

But it's not quite that simple.

Who is responsible after the expiry date?

According to the Closed Substance Cycle Waste Management Act, manufacturers generally have far-reaching product responsibility. However, unlike packaging, electrical appliances or batteries, for example, there is no specific legal regulation for expired pyrotechnics.

In fact, many of the relevant organisations do not even accept this hot commodity for a variety of reasons.

Equipment suppliers hardly trade in signalling products any more

The average yacht chandler at the harbour usually no longer has any distress signalling equipment in its range. This is because storage obligations have become so strict in recent years that an average shop no longer fulfils the legal requirements without structural measures.

In addition, the law only allows pyrotechnics to be traded by trained personnel.

However, due to the lack of trade in new distress signalling equipment, there is no commercial motivation to take back the old ones.

Anyone who trades in signalling products has a redemption problem

Some specialist dealers who sell marine signalling equipment offer to accept the expired ones as a gesture of goodwill and usually for a fee, even though they are not obliged to do so. However, they are not happy about this. Collecting the hot goods and transporting them to the manufacturer or a so-called delabelling company is not only expensive, but also complicated.

This is due to the fact that the rules governing the transport of hazardous goods must be complied with during transport. This includes, for example, the storage of signalling equipment in product-specific hazardous goods packaging.

Even manufacturers are not necessarily allowed to dispose of waste themselves

If the superimposed distress signalling equipment ends up back at the manufacturer, the manufacturer is also faced with the problem that, according to the German Recycling Management Act, it may only be disposed of by specially authorised companies. And the manufacturers are generally not.

"We take our products back from the cycle via the retail trade, but then have to take them to the disposal company," says Holger Mügge, Sales Director at Wescom in Bremen, where the Comet brand signalling products are manufactured.

Mügge is then faced with the same problem as the retailer who supplied him with the expired signalling materials instead of taking them directly to the disposal company himself.

Recycling and reusable material depots, hazardous material, pollutant and problematic material collection centres

Public utility companies also face the same problems when dealing with superimposed signalling ammunition. As they also have to pass on hazardous substances such as distress signalling equipment to ammunition decommissioning plants, it is not uncommon for them to refuse to accept them.

Although designations such as hazardous substance, pollutant or problematic substance collection or collection centre may suggest otherwise, this refers to paints and varnishes, solvents, pesticides, pesticides and similar substances, not explosives.

The police and fire brigade are also not obliged to accept old distress flares and the like, except for acute emergency defence.

Disposal costs money

Companies in which ammunition is dismantled and disposed of are operating in the private sector and must therefore charge money for disposal. It is therefore irrelevant whether the end user himself, his specialist dealer, the manufacturer or a collection centre delivers the surplus distress signalling equipment there.

In Germany, only a few companies specialise in the so-called delaboration of ammunition and are licensed to do so, including, for example GEKA in Munster.

Private individuals don't have it any easier

Private individuals could also theoretically deliver their small quantities of distress signal rockets directly to such a disposal company. However, in addition to the cost of disposal itself, this would also require expensive transport by one of the few hazardous goods haulage companies authorised in Germany, meaning that this option is not a serious consideration.

Tantalising New Year's Eve delights

Not least for these reasons, many people are tempted to avoid the hassle by simply firing the distress signalling devices into the air at the turn of the year. Out of sight, out of mind.

But that is not what they are made for. And if the outdated propellant charge means that the fuel element no longer reaches its full height of climb, it can fall to the ground burning and cause major damage.

Even if it costs something, the old signalling devices should be handed in when buying new ones.