Ethylene glycol carbonate (EGC) can be isolated in purified form from contaminated material which contains impurities from the group comprising starting materials, by-products and/or catalysts of the preparation process in that the contaminated EGC is subjected to a fractional melt crystallization and the crystals of the purified EGC formed in this case are mechanically separated off from the remaining impurities dissolved in the residual melt.