We are most certainly living through a “vaping era” – and researchers say it’s time to ban single-use vapes due to the environmental waste they generate.
The amount of discarded single-use vapes have increased fourfold since 2022, according to a study by not-for-profit organisation Material Focus – with five million single-use vapes reportedly being thrown away in the UK each week. That’s eight vapes a second.
Also, the lithium in these vapes are enough to create 5,000 electric car batteries a year. On top of the environmental waste generated by disposable vapes, the leftover lithium in their batteries also poses a public safety risk due to the fact that it can become flammable when crushed.
We’re not joking about the vaping era, by the way – governmental figures found that the number of young women vaping every day in the UK has more than tripled in the last year.
On top of the health considerations, the consumption of disposable vapes at this rate is not great for the environment – this has led to Material Focus calling for a ban.“Single-use vapes are a strong contender for being the most environmentally wasteful, damaging and dangerous consumer product ever made,” Scott Butler, the executive director at the non-profit, has said.
He adds that the UK lacks the infrastructure to recycle vapes effectively, meaning that local councils are being “burdened” with the issue.
“Very few producers and retailers comply with environmental regulations and put recycling points and systems in place,” he explained. “This all means that too often local authorities are being burdened with the major operational and financial headaches associated with what is now the fastest growing and most dangerous waste stream in the UK, single-use vapes.”
The organisation has suggested that vape retailers, importers and producers should be shouldering the cost of collecting and recycling discarded vapes, which is reported to be around £200 million.
This comes after a number of other countries have made moves to ban e-cigarettes. Scotland’s first minister Humza Yousaf has confirmed that there will be a consultation on a single-use vape ban, while Germany has already banned flavoured e-cigarettes. France’s prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, has also confirmed that the French government will present a national plan to ban disposable e-cigarettes.
“Until single-use vape producers, importers and retailers act to genuinely comply with and finance their legal environmental responsibilities then the calls for banning the sale of them will only strengthen,” Butler added.