The number of vapes sent to landfill or recycled incorrectly has reduced by 23% since the disposable ban last year, according to research by Material Focus, but the “vapocalypse continues” the group has said.
Despite the ban in June last year, the number of devices thrown away “remains high”, with 6.3 million vapes and pods chucked each week, according to Material Focus research, conducted by Opinium. This means tonnes of valuable materials such as lithium and copper are lost to landfill while some waste companies are reporting “a fire a day” at their facilities.
Some 6.3 million vapes and pods thrown away per week, compared with 8.2 million vapes in 2024. Material Focus consumer surveys found 33% of people said they recycled their vapes compared with 2024 when 29% said the same.
Gillian Golden, CEO of the Independent British Vape Trade Association, said the single-use vape ban had “not only reduced the number of vape batteries being placed on the market, but also the amount of waste being produced”.
Material Focus, however, has the view that “the vapocalypse continues” adding that “vapes are one of the most environmentally wasteful, damaging and dangerous consumer products ever sold”.
The not-for-profit organisation’s executive director Scott Butler said the millions of devices still thrown away every week was “still a massive waste of valuable materials and a major fire risk”.
Veolia is continuing to experience a fire a day in its vehicles and at its waste and recycling centres, which it attributed to the lithium batteries found inside vapes. Biffa told the not-for-profit it received more than 200,000 vapes a month that had been incorrectly placed in mixed recycling collections.
According to the research, battery fires in the waste stream have increased by 71% since 2022 – from 700 to more than 1,200.
“It should be as easy to recycle a vape as it is to buy one,” Butler added. “We want more vapers demanding that the places where they buy them also provide recycling points. It is a long-standing legal obligation for all of the stores who are profiting from selling them must offer safe recycling drop-off points and cover the costs of doing that. Vape producers and importers should then cover the costs of recycling.”
All vapes can be recycled since 80% of the materials inside a vape can be recovered.
As of 2024, all retailers who sell vapes must provide a recycling facility for consumers to bring back used or unwanted vapes and at a minimum must accept a vape for recycling if that customer is purchasing a new one.
The IBVTA told The Grocer that “more consumers should be returning their used products to recycling points to be dealt with properly” and that “every vape retailer should be providing take-back bins to enable consumers to do this”.
Being able to recycle their vape at the shop they bought them was the preferred location for the biggest proportion (49%) of the research respondents to recycle their vape. However, the research by Material Focus found that 53% of people who tried to recycle their vape at a supermarket were able to do so every time, compared with 65% who tried at a specialist vape store.
Of all vapers, however, 41% of people said that they had never tried to recycle their vapes at a retailer.
Material Focus is calling for a “comprehensive and widely accessible take-back and recycling solution” alongside a major communications campaign to raise public awareness, more recycling points for vapes in shops, parks, public places and near to schools, universities and colleges; and for more information to be displayed on vapes and their packaging on how they must be recycled.
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