Thirteen vapes are thrown away every second in the UK – more than a million a day – leading to an “environmental nightmare”, according to research.
There has also been a rise in “big puff” vapes which are bigger and can hold up to 6,000 puffs per vape, with single use vapes averaging 600. Three million of these larger vapes are being bought every week according to the research, commissioned by Material Focus, and conducted by Opinium. 8.2 million vapes are now thrown away or recycled incorrectly every week.
From June 2025 it will be illegal to sell single-use vapes, a move designed to combat environmental damage and their widespread use by children. Vapes will only be allowed to be sold if they are rechargeable or contain a refillable cartridge.
But all types of vape contain lithium-ion batteries which are dangerous if crushed or damaged because they can cause fires in bin lorries or waste and recycling centres. These fires are on the rise across the UK, with an increase last year of 71% compared with 2022.
single use vapes are one of the most wasteful products imaginable
It’s also so much more expensive than just buying a refillable vape
Refillables and juices have been disappearing for the last few years. Almost all that’s left is disposables
And then we have the problem of batteries dying out and having to dispose of them or the whole device.
Same goes for any other device with a lithium battery. Refillable vapes last quite a while at least.
Yes, no reason to add a new one to make the problem bigger.
Depends on how much someone uses it but it ends up adding to the already growing battery waste.
Lithium batteries can be recycled so it’s not really generating waste to use them unless you’re throwing batteries in the garbage.
The only reason why the industry moved to disposables is because of all these heavy handed regulations on the industry which did nothing toward their stated goals of ‘keeping them away from kids’ and just created more issues. If we could go back to refillable mods with replaceable batteries, the waste issue caused by disposibles would be mitigated.