Concerns are being raised that vapes, redesigned to avoid ban on single-use disposable ones, will not be very effective in curbing the environmental impact of e-cigarette waste.
As disposable vape ban is set to come into force in April 2025, manufacturers have been evolving their products to make them reusable and rechargeable. Elfbar and Lost Mary, sister brands that together make up more than half of the UK’s disposable vape sales, have already launched reusable versions.
The newer vapes have a liquid containing nicotine in a replaceable pod and a USB port to recharge the battery, allowing the body of the vape to be reused. New “big puff” also have a recyclable battery and contain four recyclable pods of vape liquid.
However, critics have said the newer products could lead to more pod waste, even as they potentially reduce battery waste. They added that, given the products’ low cost and a continuing lack of recycling services, consumers could continue to treat them as disposable.
Scott Butler, the executive director at the not-for-profit organisation Material Focus, said vape producers and importers had made the adaptations “to move their products just outside the scope of a likely disposable vape definition”.
“It is as easy to buy a vape as it is to buy a bag of crisps or chocolate bars. Instead, it should be as easy to recycle one as to buy one,” Butler said. “Producers, importers and retailers of vapes are still legally required to offer and finance take-back and recycling and 90 per cent of them are still not doing this, so now is the time for them to step up," The Guardian quoted Butler as saying.
Kate Pike, the lead officer for tobacco and vaping at the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, said some vape manufacturers were being “innovative” in redesigning products with the potential to be less damaging to the environment.
She, however, added that the price of the pod products is not significantly greater than the single-use disposable vape so consumers will most likely to treat them as disposables.
"Will consumers treat them as disposable even though they can be reused? The pod products will still need to be taken to a vape retailer and the vape retailer will still have to offer collections and they will still have to send the vapes off for recycling.
“It is likely to be more complex for them as it is quite possible the pod itself (which contains the coil) will need to be collected and sent for recycling separately from the device. I fear there is already little compliance with the responsibilities to collect and recycle vapes and I am not sure this will change," Pike said.
This comes after a recent research by Material Focus which points out that a quarter of a billion disposable vapes could be dumped before a ban comes in next year as most retailers are not fulfilling their legal duty to help consumers recycle.
More than 90 per cent of vape producers and retailers seemed not to provide or pay for the return and recycling of single-use e-cigarettes, states the research report, adding that high street brands and convenience stores are among the worst offenders as they provide few or no recycling drop-off points.
Simon Hannah
