A major waste company has warned that wrongly discarded vapes continue to cause fires at its garbage trucks and waste facilities, six months after disposable vapes were banned.
Suez, which runs more than 300 waste management sites across the UK, said it had seen 339 fires this year, more than one a day, endangering workers and causing millions of pounds worth of damage.
Vaporizers contain lithium batteries that can catch fire if crushed or damaged in the waste stream.
The Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA) said the number of vaporizers sold had halved since the ban, but called for greater education of consumers on how to dispose of them responsibly.
The ban on disposable vapes came into force in the UK on June 1, aiming to curb sales to children and reduce the number of devices being thrown away or thrown away incorrectly.
Six months later, “vapes are still very common tossed on the streets, in bins and at recycling centers across the country,” said Adam Read, director of sustainability and external affairs at Suez, which manages waste from 50 municipalities.
“The ban was an important first step, but the reality is that it has proven to be a sticky solution to the mountain of vaporizers that end up in our trash every day.”
Vaporizers should not be thrown into general waste or recycled, but rather disposed of in specialized recycling bins that can be found in stores or recycling centers.
But Suez and Biffa have said that people still treat reusable vaporizers as disposable and throw them in the trash after one or two uses.
In September, waste company Biffa warned that, despite the ban having been in place for three months at the time, it was seeing more vapes being disposed of incorrectly, causing more fires than ever.
Some manufacturers offer products that closely resemble the most popular disposable vaporizer models, come in similar packaging, and sell at similar prices.
But because they have a refill port and a replaceable tank for nicotine-containing liquid, they count as reusable and can still be sold legally.
Additionally, single-use vaporizers are still sold illegally and contribute to the waste problem. Last month, the government announced a crackdown on retailers selling illegal vapes, with the threat of £10,000 fines and prison sentences.
Suez called for a more ambitious plan to address the fire risk and environmental damage caused by cheap, disposable vaporizers, such as a nationwide recycling scheme paid for by producers.
Marcus Saxton, president of IBVTA, said that according to figures from Nielsen IQ, 7.2 million rechargeable and rechargeable devices were sold in October, compared to 16.2 million single-use vaporizers per month sold last year before the ban.
It said it “applauds this action but equally recognizes the continued need for greater consumer education on how to responsibly recycle both used single-use devices purchased before the ban and rechargeable devices that have reached the end of their useful life.”
Doncaster Council is now offering kerbside collection of vapes and household batteries, making it easier for residents to recycle them and reduce the number of them being disposed of incorrectly.
A government spokesperson said: “Single-use vapes get children hooked on nicotine and blight our high streets – that’s why we’ve taken tough action and banned them.
“We are working with Trading Standards and local authorities to enforce the ban and have made it mandatory for all vaping retailers to provide recycling bins, with 10,500 return bins introduced to UK stores since April.”
