The European Union (EU), among other targets claims for the year 2020 an increase of 20% of energy efficiency. In line with this program, European household appliance producers, particularly producers of cooling and freezing (C&F) appliances, increasingly rely on vacuum insulation technology, in the form of vacuum insulation panels (VIPs), in appliance construction. In this way, a smaller wall thickness is reached while a contribution to an increase of the appliance’s internal volume and an improvement of energy efficiency can be achieved. However, the recovery and recycling possibilities of these new insulation materials are still widely unresolved. The presented Thesis gives an overview about prevailing types of VIPs as well as the current state of recycling technology in Europe for end-of-life C&F appliances. This Thesis has emerged from a project, carried out by the Chair of Waste Processing Technology and Waste Management together with the European Committee of Domestic Equipment Manufacturers (CECED), who complies with the principle of producer responsibility according to Directive 2002/96/EC. The Thesis in hand contains physical fundamentals of thermodynamics and thermal insulation as well as legal and normative backgrounds, which are relevant for the recycling of C&F appliances. Furthermore, the Thesis contains results on the performed chemical analyses (X-ray fluorescence analyses), physical analyses (sieving analyses), small scale tests (shredding) and large scale tests (in recycling plants for C&F appliances) with the investigated VIPs. On the basis of these findings, the general applicability of the state of the art recycling technology for C&F appliances in recycling of VIP-containing appliances is discussed and a possible change in quality of the recycling plants’ output materials will be estimated.