Build the Load, Then See What Berlin Charges for It
Tap what is actually going out of the flat and the tool stacks it against the Berlin rules drawn to scale: the 3 m³ free line at a recycling yard, the free electrical lane, the per-litre rubble tariff, and the fine band for the same pile left on the pavement.
Fees checked on 10 September 2026 against the BSR fee list and acceptance conditions for recycling yards and the BSR collection booking page. Fine ranges come from the Berlin fine catalogue for environmental offences published in the official gazette on 14 November 2025.
Getting rid of a wardrobe in Berlin is free more often than people think, and the trap is not the price, it is a single number. A recycling yard takes 3 m³ of bulky waste per vehicle free of charge, but partial unloading is not allowed, so a load one armchair over the line is refused whole and you drive all of it home again. This tool makes that line visible before you load the car. Tap in the actual objects, a two door wardrobe, a double mattress, the fridge, the tiles off the bathroom floor, and each one goes into its own stream with its own rule: bulky waste counted against the 3 m³ line, electrical appliances free with no limit at all, mineral rubble at €4 per started 10 litres, bagged waste at €3 per started 50 litres, cuttings capped at 1 m³. Every route then reprices itself against the same pile, from a free yard trip through the €50 saver collection to the flat €180 Saturday counter at Gradestraße, with the fine for leaving it outside drawn on the same board. Volumes here are working estimates for a normal Berlin flat, which is also how the yard works: nothing is weighed, staff estimate by eye, and their own rule of thumb is that a full Multivan boot is about 3 m³.
What the bars show
Five streams, each drawn to its own scale with its own limit already marked before you add anything. Bulky waste carries the 3 m³ free line and the 5 m³ point where the €50 collection stops covering the load. Electrical appliances have no limit at all. Cuttings stop at 1 m³, bagged waste at 500 litres, and mineral rubble has no free portion whatsoever. Anything you add past a limit turns red on the bar, which is the part of the load that will be refused.
Why one waste type covers four materials
Old furniture, scrap wood, scrap metal and hard plastics count together as a single waste type at a BSR yard, so they share one 3 m³ allowance. The limit also counts per vehicle rather than per person, which catches people who arrive two to a car expecting six cubic metres between them. Upholstered furniture is the one exception: a full suite over the line can still be unloaded, plus one further cubic metre of bulky waste.
The routes it compares
A free yard trip while the pile is under 3 m³. The Saturday counter at the Recyclinghof Plus on Gradestraße, which takes 3 to 5 m³ for a flat €180 paid before you unload. The BSR collection to your door at €50 on the saver fee from the sixteenth working day or €100 on the standard fee inside fifteen, both taking electricals and clean bagged textiles free. And the sorting plant at Gradestraße 81 at €180 a tonne with a €72 minimum, which is the only one with no volume ceiling.
What it cannot decide for you
It does not know how well your load stacks, and a yard estimates volume by eye at the gate rather than measuring it, so treat a result close to a line as close rather than safe. It does not price a hired van, a helper or a Saturday. And it is a cost picture, not legal advice: the fine ranges are the published bands from the Berlin catalogue, and what an actual notice says depends on the case.