Media Release, 24th October 2024
With new products coming onto the market, “rechargeable disposables”, “pod” and “Big Puff” models skirt around potential regulations and are on sale at similar price points to the single-use models.
Vape producers and retailers will still need to meet their legal obligations to collect and recycle them. Material Focus research has shown that 90% of retailers and producers are still not meeting these requirements.
Scott Butler, Executive Director, Material Focus: “When a disposable vape ban comes in, vapes still do need a special category under environmental regulations, which would allow the government to set clear collection targets and can only help in the move to get those profiting from vapes to cover the costs of dealing with them. Too many companies are currently dodging their share of £200 million/year responsibility for collection and recycling.
“In our research 5 million single-use vapes are currently binned or littered every week in the UK creating a staggering amount of waste. With the ban due to come into place, this means 150 million vapes will be thrown away, losing all the precious materials contained in vapes forever such as lithium and posing fire risks. For those that vape, they should never bin them, or any electrical item, and instead take them back to where they bought them from. And if that retailer refuses, go to your next retailer or go to the recycle your electricals postcode locator to to find the nearest place to recycle.”
For vape producers, retailers and local authorities – download our vapes industry briefing paper to understand how you can comply with their legal environmental obligations and how local authorities can access support for vapes that they collect.
Notes to Editors
For further information please contact Kate Hinton – kate@materialfocus.org.uk
About Material Focus
Material Focus is a not-for-profit organisation whose goal is to stop the nation throwing away or hoarding all their old, small electricals. Material Focus is delivering the UK-wide Recycle Your Electricals campaign. The campaign is revealing the value hidden in electricals and is making it easier for us all to recycle and reuse the small electricals we no longer need by providing more recycling points as well as providing practical information on how households can reuse and recycle.
The campaign is funded by producers of electrical appliances which pays for a range of activities, including communications, behaviour change activities, increased recycling projects and research. Ultimately the aim is to support actions that will help the UK increase the levels of reuse and recycling of waste electricals.
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