Government urged to crack down on cheap vapes circumventing single-use ban
Millions of vapes are still being binned one year after the Government banned single-use devices, councils and campaigners have warned.
Shops and online retailers can only sell vapes that meet a set of reusable criteria after ministers introduced new rules a year ago on Monday as part of efforts to crackdown on their use among young people and environmental impacts.
But vape makers have since developed cheap, new styles that meet the legal requirements yet are sold, priced and used in the same way as the disposable models they replaced, meaning they essentially circumvent the ban.
Local authorities are now among those calling on the Government to tighten the legal definition of a single-use vape to include these products and warning of gaps in information or access for consumers when it comes to recycling points.
Biffa, the UK’s largest waste management company, is also requesting a scheme where consumers pay a small mandatory deposit when they purchase a vape.
The fee would be redeemed when the device is safely returned to existing take-back systems that should be available at all vape retailers, under the plan supported by the industry trade body the Environmental Services Association.
The calls to Government come after research by campaign group Material Focus estimated that the number of vapes and pods thrown away each week before the ban was around 8.2 million.
While this had decreased over the last year, 6.3 million vapes and pods were still discarded in the last year, according to the group’s findings, which were calculated from polling carried out by Opinium.
As part of the recent reforms, retailers are also required to offer take-back and recycling facilities, helping to cover the cost of vape collections.
But the Material Focus survey of 1,000 adults who recently bought vapes found that 47% were unaware they could be recycled.
The poll also suggested that 43% of those who tried to recycle vapes at supermarkets were unable to find a collection point, while 63% were unable to at local convenience stores and 33% were unable to at specialist vape retailers.
Separate polling of 1,000 vape users, carried out by Censuswide on behalf of consumer safety charity Electrical Safety First, found that more than half of vapers (59%) admitted to disposing of their vapes incorrectly in household rubbish or recycling bins over the past 12 months.
And data from Biffa showed that more than two million incorrectly discarded vapes were found at four of its sites between June 2025 and March this year.
This equates to almost 300 vapes every hour and more than 6,500 every day at just those sites.
Meanwhile, fire chiefs said that blazes in bin lorries as well as recycling and waste centres continued this year, often caused by lithium-ion batteries in rechargeable vapes that spark when crushed or damaged.
The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, said they were bearing the cost of contaminated recycling and fires, which ultimately fell on residents through council tax rather than on the producers and retailers who profited from vape sales.
Wendy Taylor, the association’s health and well-being committee chairwoman, said: “A year on, the volume of vapes in our bins has dropped, but industry has moved faster than regulation – the products causing fires in our bin lorries today are effectively the same disposables in a different shell.
“Year two must focus on enforcement, producer responsibility, and closing this industry loophole to keep rechargeable vapes out of our waste system, preventing further fires and reducing unnecessary local resource drain.”
As well as tightening the statutory definition of single-use vapes, the LGA said ministers must strengthen retail take-back schemes, increase the fees charged to producers to cover the safe disposals, and deliver a public awareness campaign on the dangers of binning vapes in household waste.
Joanne Henderson, the National Fire Chiefs Council’s smoking and vape lead, warned that every vape thrown in a bin and not recycled correctly had the potential to cause a serious fire.
“People want to do the right thing and dispose of these products safely as fire services advise them, but they need clear information and easy-to-access recycling points to do so,” she said.
Material Focus also called for the gaps in information and access to recycling points to be closed as it urged vape retailers to comply with their legal obligations and vape producers to provide clear recycling information on their products.
Scott Butler, executive director of Material Focus, said: “Vapes are one of the most environmentally wasteful, damaging and dangerous consumer products ever sold.
“The ban on disposables was a major move, but a ban on one particular type of vape is not a behaviour-change strategy.”
In response, Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds said: “We have taken decisive action to tackle the harm caused by disposable vapes by banning single-use products, mandating takeback schemes, and backing enforcement where the rules are not being followed.
“The results speak for themselves, fewer young people are using disposable vapes and we are turning the tide on a throwaway culture that damages our environment.
“This government will not let up. We are committed to going further, supporting retailers to fulfil their legal obligation to provide vape recycling bins, holding those who fall short to account, and making it as easy as possible for people to do the right thing.”
Officials highlighted that they must legally review the ban, how it was being enforced, as well as any civil sanctions, within three years.
Elsewhere, Giuseppe Capanna, product safety engineer at Electrical Safety First, encouraged vape users to take more care when discarding their devices.
“Every household can help turn the tide on this issue by making safe disposal a habit rather than an afterthought, therefore reducing the number of dangerous batteries entering the waste stream,” he said.
Published: by Radio NewsHub