Swiss lawmakers voted on June 12 to ban sales of disposable vapes, reports the Swiss Broadcasting Corp.
The motion calls on the government to amend the Federal Act on Tobacco Products and Electronic Cigarettes so that single-use vapes may no longer be offered for sale in Switzerland.
“’Puff bars’ are attractive to young people due to their many flavors and bright colors and are therefore becoming increasingly popular, said Green Party parliamentarian Christophe Clivaz, using the brand name of a popular vape brand to refer to all cigarettes.
Switzerland imported 10 million units in 2022, he added.
Clivaz lamented the environmental impact of improperly disposed vapes and the addictive nature of nicotine products. Clean-up efforts cost millions and the health effects of disposable cigarettes have been insufficiently researched, he noted.
Interior Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider voted against the House of Representatives’ motion, which the Federal Council, Switzerland’s executive body, considers premature.
Shisha Vibe, a vape store in London, announced it has a new disposable vape recycling program being offered across its retail stores.
The company’s new disposable vape recycling program partners with Waste Care, a recycling and waste management service specializing in hazardous waste removal. The scheme has been designed to provide customers and the local community with easy access to 30-litre bins to encourage the safe and environmentally responsible disposal of single-use vapes, according to a release.
“Shisha Vibe is at the forefront of promoting environmental sustainability in the vaping industry, thanks to our groundbreaking partnership with Waste Care,” said a spokesperson for Shisha Vibe. “This collaboration has led to the introduction of a unique disposable vape recycling scheme within our retail stores.
“Centered around the installation of 30-liter bins, this initiative invites our customers to participate actively in eco-friendly practices by depositing their used disposable vapes. We’re proud to offer our customers a practical solution to vape waste, demonstrating our dedication to a greener future and responsible vaping practices.”
Earlier this year, Waste Care partnered with UK retailer B&M in a vape recycling program, along with the e-cigarette brand Elf Bar and vaping manufacturer Supreme plc.
The partnership is said to have introduced more than 700 in-store vape recycling bins across B&M retail locations.
The hazardous waste management provider oversees the collection of the bins once full, ensuring the responsible disposal of single-use devices.
The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive consultation period ended at the beginning of March. This consultation period has implications for the vaping sector, according to the UKVIA, including: policy makers potentially introducing a dedicated category under the WEEE directive; responsibility for collection and treatment of vape waste possibly moving completely to producers; and a potential new curbside household collection service for electronics, potentially including vape devices.
The WEEE consultation section that relates to vaping was designed to review current regulations due to the environmental challenges associated with single use vapes. However, disposables are now about to be banned in the U.K., raising questions about how the WEEE regulatory reform would affect the vapor industry.
The webinar will discuss these issues and take place on Monday, April 15, 2024.
Despite these reforms, a UKVIA investigation showed that there is a lack of interest in vape recycling in the U.K.
The investigation showed that 80 percent of major U.K. city councils and London borough councils surveyed had “no plans” to invest in new vape collection solutions in the next year.
As part of the investigation, Freedom of Information requests were issued by the UKVIA prior to the single-use vape ban to 10 major provincial city councils and 10 central London councils, including Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Westminster.
Of those surveyed, 60 percent said they offer vape was disposal at civic amenity sites (or designated collection facilities). One in 10 have introduced vape waste containers in public places while about one-third do not offer vape waste disposal containers or drop-off points of any kind. Only one of the councils has introduced curbside or household vape collection to date.
“Councils are not anti-vapes, which are shown to be less harmful than smoking and have a place as a tool to use in smoking cessation,” said a spokesperson for the Local Government Association, which represents all the authorities contacted as part of the investigation and is one of the organizations that called for a disposable ban. “However, disposable vapes are fundamentally flawed in their design and inherently unsustainable products, meaning an outright ban will prove more effective than attempts to recycle more vapes.”
Research by Material Focus showed that 70 percent of people throw away their single-use vapes because “they didn’t know they could recycle them.” Of those surveyed, 44 percent of vapers said they would recycle their single-use vapes if there were recycling points on a street or in a park while half said they would be likely to recycle if curbside recycling was available.
“Advocating a ban on disposable vapes on environmental grounds while not committing any investment to vape waste collection, despite the need for such facilities in public places—which are controlled by local government—is a cast of the pot calling the kettle black,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, in a statement. “Even when single-use vapes are no longer available in retail outlets, there will still be millions of rechargeable and refillable vapes sold every year, not to mention a rise in black market products that will arise from the ban on disposables. So, the lack of investment in collection facilities and foresight around the need to make the disposable of vapes as convenient as possible is startling and extremely concerning.
“We are under no illusions as to what the industry needs to do to ensure it is environmentally responsible, which is why the sector has invested in producing more sustainable products, providing recycling education for consumers, rolling out recycling initiatives and innovations and ensuring it is compliant with regulations. The UKVIA is also involved in the development of a vape licensing scheme, which has just presented to parliamentarians, and, if adopted, will require retailers to provide take-back facilities in-store before being allowed to sell vapes.
“We can, and will, do much more to ensure environmental compliance across the sector, but that doesn’t mean local government can simply offload its responsibility for providing vape waste collection facilities in public places. The industry pays its business rates like any other sector, and this makes up one of the largest sources of income for local authorities—a percentage of which is earmarked for waste management. If local authorities can provide public waste disposal facilities for all types of waste, why not used vapes?
“Whilst I am sure vaping manufacturers and retailers could be encouraged to partner with local authorities to create more public collection points for vape waste, the industry can’t just put such facilities on streets and in parks, as is required. We need all the players in the vape waste ecosystem to be joined up if we are to protect both the environment and the health of former smokers.”
“Currently, a significant volume of used vaping products are being wrongfully disposed of in the general waste bin and ultimately end up at landfill,” said Steward Price, head of producer responsibility services with Waste Experts. “This powerful data demonstrates that much more needs to be done to educate consumers on the correct disposal of their waste vapes and reinforces the need for a much stronger collection and recycling infrastructure for this challenging waste stream.”
France has moved one step closer to a ban on disposable vapes. The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to ban pre-filled, disposable e-cigarettes.
“The marketing of these products is intended to attract young people with colors, fruit [flavors] and aromas, and low price,” Labour and Health Minister Catherine Vautrin told the chamber.
While the Senators approved the law, they modified the National Assembly’s text to clarify the ban, according to media reports.
The text would ban the “manufacturing, marketing, sale, distribution or offering for free” of the products and prohibit owning them with the intent to sell or distribute them, with a fine of up to €100,000 ($108,000).
The two chambers will now need to combine their text and approve that version before it is sent to the European Commission, which will have six months to hand down an opinion.
The government has said it hopes the ban will come into effect in September.
Meanwhile, vaping and other recent smoking innovations are expected to be high on the agenda as country representatives gather in Panama City on Monday, tasked with revising the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first treaty ever adopted under the auspices of WHO, entered into force.
UK retailer B&M will soon start a vape recycling program in partnership with the e-cigarette brand Elf Bar and vaping manufacturer Supreme plc. The group hopes to reduce the environmental impact of disposable vaping products.
The partnership will introduce more than 700 in-store vape recycling bins across B&M retail locations.
The campaign aims to enhance vape recycling by providing consumers with a means of disposing of their used vape devices, according to media sources. The products are not collected from homes. It begins before the end of January.
The hazardous waste management provider Wastecare Group will oversee the collection of the bins once full, ensuring the responsible disposal of the single-use devices.
“B&M welcomes the opportunity to work in a three-way partnership with Elf Bar and Supreme to tackle the ongoing environmental damage occurring by single-use, disposable vaping products,” a B&M spokesperson said. “We want our consumers to use the products we sell in a responsible manner, and that remains even when they are no longer of use. Like many of the other products we sell, vapes should never be binned or littered – especially now they can be so easily recycled.”
The Scottish Government has expressed intentions to consult on banning single-use vapes due to concerns about their impact on public health and the environment. The UK Government is being urged to follow suit.
Wastecare Group’s recycling process involves the recovery and recycling of raw materials under existing disposal rules. The collected vape batteries will undergo processing to recover lithium, while the filter and nicotine elements will be sent for incineration.
All recycling processes will take place within the UK.
“Continuing Elf Bar’s commitment to its GreenAwareness program, this marks another step towards helping the public dispose of used vapes sustainably and responsibly,” said Elf Bar UK’s director of government affairs, Eve Peters.
French Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau announced on Tuesday that France will ban the sale of single-use e-cigarettes by 2025 during a National Tobacco Control Program (PNLT) presentation while increasing tobacco taxation.
“We will ban single-use puffs […] which are an aberration both from a public health point of view and in terms of their environmental footprint,” said Aurélien Rousseau at the press conference.
A cross-party bill put forward by ecologist MP Francesca Pasquini “aiming at banning single-use vaping devices” is currently being examined by the French National Assembly. For Pasquini, this is a matter of emergency “when we know that young people discover nicotine with puffs,” according to EURACTIVE.
If the law is adopted by the National Assembly and then by the Senate, France will have to present its bill to the European Commission, which will have six non-compressible months to make a decision.
Germany, Belgium, and Ireland are working on similar legislation to ban single-use e-cigarettes.
Advertisements for the vaping company ElfBar in the UK have been banned after using the slogan “recycling for a greener future” over concern they were misleading due to the environmental damage of discarded disposable vapes.
A study by Material Focus shows that 260 million disposable vapes were thrown away in the UK in 2022, making them a leading cause of the rise in plastic pollution in recent years.
The ad, banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), gave the impression that recycling ElfBar products was easy and could be done at home.
Vaping products cannot generally be home-recycled; they must be taken to special facilities such as council-run waste centers, according to the Guardian.
The ads appeared on buses and digital billboards in London in July and August. They carried images of the Elf Bar 600 V2 vape alongside the words “recycling for a greener future” and “green awareness.”
Both ads were the subject of complaints to the regulator by Adfree Cities and others.
The ASA instructed ElfBar to ensure that the ads must not appear again in the forms complained of; and that future campaigns did not mislead the public about the environmental impact or benefit of the products.
James Ward, a campaigner at Adfree Cities, called for a total ban on advertising nicotine vapes. “Just as cigarettes scar the bodies of smokers, so has the rise in popularity of disposable vapes left a toxic legacy of plastic and harmful battery metals on our environment,” he said.
The United Kingdom will likely announce a public consultation next week on a plan to ban single-use vapes, reports The Guardian. While the government has accepted the benefits of e-cigarettes in helping smokers quit, it is increasingly concerned about the environmental impact and youth appeal of disposable products.
Research conducted by Material Focus suggested vapers in the U.K. throw out 5 million single-use e-cigarettes every week, a fourfold increase on 2022. This amounts to eight vapes a second being discarded, with the lithium in the products enough to create 5,000 electric car batteries a year, according to the organization.
Smokers’ rights group Forest said that if the U.K. government’s aim is to reduce smoking rates, banning disposable vapes would be “a significant own goal.”
“Vaping has been a huge success story, with millions of smokers choosing to switch to a product that is far less risky to their health. Part of that success is due to disposable vapes which are convenient and easy to use,” said Forest Director Simon Clark.
“The answer to the problem of children vaping is not to ban a product many adults use to help them quit smoking, but to crack down on retailers who are breaking the law and selling e-cigarettes to anyone under 18.”
The answer to the problem of children vaping is not to ban a product many adults use to help them quit smoking, but to crack down on retailers who are breaking the law and selling e-cigarettes to anyone under 18.”
While stressing that the plans to ban single-use vapes were only at the consultation stage and no decisions had been made yet, the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) said it too opposed the idea.
“We welcome the idea of a consultation on disposables as it’s key that the industry gets the opportunity to highlight the benefits, and therefore continued need, for single-use vapes as a smoking cessation method,” said UKVIA Director General John Dunne in a statement.
A ban, however, is not the answer, he cautioned. “Some 220 people die from smoking every day, 365 days a year,” said Dunne. “Disposables have proved to be highly effective in helping smokers quit their habits due to their ease of use, accessibility and low entry price points. They are one of the main reasons as to why the number of adult smokers in Great Britain has hit record lows for the last two years according to the Office for National Statistics.”
We welcome the idea of a consultation on disposables as it’s key that the industry gets the opportunity to highlight the benefits, and therefore continued need, for single-use vapes as a smoking cessation method.
Dunne suggested that the issues of youth vaping and environmental damage are due in part to lax enforcement of rules designed to prevent such problems. He pointed to recent research by Arcus Compliance showing that fines handed out to retailers for underage and illicit product sales amounted to just over £2,000 ($2,494) in 11 major provincial U.K. cities between 2021-2023.
Dunne also warned of unintended consequences of banning disposable vapes. According to him, the black market already represents over 50 percent of the single use market in the U.K. “This would only accelerate with a ban, he cautioned.
Dunne further highlighted industry efforts to tackle electronic waste, citing research by Waste Experts showing that disposable cigarettes are highly recyclable. “However, the biggest challenge is getting consumers to recycle their vapes and providing the waste disposal facilities in public places and at points of use that will enable higher recycling rates,” he said.
In a note to investors, TD Cowen said a ban on disposable vapes could benefit global tobacco companies with vapor exposure. While multinationals such as British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International have exposure to the disposable vape market in the U.K., category economics are more favorable for pod-based systems, according to the investment bank.
A man used 80 discarded vape batteries to power his e-scooter to make a point about the wasteful nature of the disposable products. Tobiasz Stanford, from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England, says he wired the lithium-ion batteries up to a scooter he bought for £30 on eBay.
The scooter is now fully functioning and “very reliable”, said Tobiasz. “The amount of vapes I see on the street is really upsetting. These vape batteries have the potential to power a scooter. They’re very active still yet they’re marketed as disposable. It needs to stop.”
Tobiasz discovered vapes used a lithium-ion battery after taking several apart. He began recharging the batteries and found after one cycle they could function “almost like a brand new battery,” according to media reports.
Tobiasz says manufacturers and vape consumers need to think about e-waste with greater importance. “The amount of vapes I see on the street or in ponds – which have the potential to power a scooter – is so bad. They’re very active still. When those chemicals break down lithium will start to spill out,” he explains. “The consequences of that will be ridiculous. It will happen over time. We need to do what we can to stop this from happening and that includes banning disposable vapes.”
Disposable vaping products are quickly replacing cigarette butts as the most common form of litter.
VV staff report
It’s a real environmental issue. Studies suggest that disposable vaping products are quickly replacing cigarette butts as the most common form of litter found on streets and in waterways. More than 5,800 unique disposable products are now being sold in numerous flavors and formulations in the U.S., according to IRI data, up 1,500 percent from 365 in early 2020.
The disposable boom began in February 2020 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration outlawed flavored nicotine e-liquids in prefilled cartridges for reusable vapes. This decision did not mention disposable vapes. As a result, sales of disposables shot up by 196.2 percent by March 2023, according to the CDC Foundation. By that time, about 11.9 million disposables were sold every month, surpassing cartridges with a 53 percent market share. Consumers in the U.S. throw away 4.5 disposable vapes per second. As the disposable market became popular in the U.S., it also began to go global.
In the U.K., Zurich Municipal, a subsidiary of insurance giant Zurich, published the results of its recent research that found that 2 million single-use vaping devices are discarded every week. The 2 million number quoted by Zurich Municipal is 700,000 units more than the 1.3 million that was estimated by Material Focus, which is funded through the country’s Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) compliance fee.
The number of vapers in the U.K. has grown exponentially from 3.7 million in 2021 to 4.3 million last year, Zurich reported. The research estimated that around 78 percent of the 138 million vapes sold in the U.K. end up in general waste instead of being recycled.
A recent PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center report titled “Vape Waste: The Environmental Harms of Disposable Vapes” found that the accumulation of electronic waste from single-use e-cigarettes is outpacing efforts to create infrastructure to recycle them properly. A major hazard that vaping products pose to public health is that disposable e-cigarettes contain hazardous materials that can leach into soil and contaminate groundwater. In addition to creating plenty of plastic waste, discarded e-cigarettes can also be considered both e-waste (because of their circuitry and lithium-ion batteries) and hazardous waste (because they contain nicotine).
While combustible cigarette pollution takes up to 10 years to degrade, disposable vapes are nonbiodegradable, according to a recent PennEnvironment report. “Who looked at cigarette butts polluting our beaches and thought, ‘How can I make a product that will more effectively trash our oceans by never decomposing?’” the PennEnvironment report authors’ question.
Compounding the issue, the report found that there is currently no standard for recycling disposable vapes anywhere. Typically, once all the liquid has been atomized, the vape cannot be refilled. Most end up in landfills. However, even if there were recycling centers for vapes, the PennEnvironment report authors suggest that single-use vapes are still a bad idea.
“We can’t recycle our way out of the problems caused by increasing electronics manufacturing,” the PennEnvironment report states. “While it’s better to recycle than not, our priority should be making fewer devices … not churning out junk we don’t need in the first place.”
The problem isn’t going away by itself. Disposable e-cigarettes have the potential to make a massive impact on the environment, according to a 2018 article in the American Journal of Public Health, and tighter regulations on one-use vapes are needed to avoid a potential environmental disaster, as noted in a letter published in 2022 in Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
Credit: Benny Robo
The United Nations reported that “recycling activities are not adequate to keep up with the expanding production of e-waste.” In the Americas, only 9.4 percent of all electronic waste is recycled—a statistic that further highlights the e-cigarette issue. Capacity isn’t the only factor here; many countries lack the technology necessary to take modern gadgets, such as disposable vapes, and convert them back into their component parts.
In 2019, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) began to accept vaping devices and cartridges at any of its drop-off locations during its National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. However, the agency stated that “it is important to note that DEA cannot accept devices containing lithium-ion batteries. If batteries cannot be removed prior to drop-off, DEA encourages individuals to consult with stores that recycle lithium-ion batteries.” However, few stores accept used vapes in the U.S.
In the U.K., stores must bear the responsibility for taking back and disposing of any small electronic items, even if customers did not purchase them from that specific shop. Smaller shops who are unable to do this themselves are required to pay a fee to support the collection, disposal and treatment of these products when they become waste. However, according to the U.K. Vaping Industry Association, vapers and members of the vaping industry may not always be aware of this rule. This means many disposable vapes sold in the U.K. also end up in the traditional trash heap.
For many, the only way to combat the waste from disposable vapes is to eliminate the product category entirely. “These products harm our health and environment,” write the authors of the PennEnvironment report. “They waste the finite resources needed for manufacturing new technology. The only solution is a ban.”
The U.K. government is expected to propose plans to tackle vape disposal before the end of the year as part of a more comprehensive reform of e-waste regulations. The proposal could include an outright ban on disposable products, according to experts. “Without a doubt, disposable e-cigarettes should be banned. There is absolutely no reason that these cheap, readily available, brightly colored, recreational products should be single-use,” said Mike McKean of the Royal College for Paediatrics and Child Health.
Though there’s some enthusiasm for a disposable vape ban among Members of Parliament (a separate bill for this is currently progressing through the House of Commons), the government is unlikely to go all the way in its revamp of the WEEE regulation, according to Euro News.
In the U.S., meanwhile, officials have recognized the recent actions by the FDA to get flavored disposable vapes off the market; however, the PennEnvironment report calls for more enforcement. Many of the FDA’s actions have had little impact on the market. While a few states and cities have prohibited flavored vaping products, none have prohibited disposable products completely.
It’s also the responsibility of consumers to keep the environment in mind when purchasing vape products, according to the PennEnvironment report. “Adult vape users should only use approved products with refillable or cartridge-based systems,” it states. “Using disposable products is unsustainable.”
Numerous companies are trying to make vapes that can more easily be recycled. Dubai-based e-cigarette manufacturer ANDS has created a disposable vape that is 99.29 percent recyclable, according to Waste Experts. ANDS’ Slix disposable vape device is constructed of an outer casing made of 100 percent recyclable high-grade cardboard with a biodegradable silicone mouthpiece and end piece. ANDS is also partnering with Waste Experts to create a recycling program.
“While the analysis carried out by Waste Experts suggests that our single-use vape is highly recyclable, we will continue to work toward zero waste,” said Marina Murphy, senior director of scientific and medical affairs at ANDS. “We aim to build a high rate of recyclability into all our products by using high-quality recyclable materials and simple construction that allows for highly efficient dismantling. This contributes to a fast, efficient overall recycling process, which reduces waste management costs. This in turn helps to keep product prices competitive, creating a win-win for the environment and adult consumers who value our products.”
Vaping industry companies have a vested interest in tackling one of the industry’s major issues. FEELM, which makes ceramic coils used in many popular vape brands, is behind a new initiative encouraging consumers to send their single-use devices off for recycling. FEELM is one of the largest closed-system vape solution providers in the world.
“At FEELM, we believe that the responsibility of building a sustainable future extends beyond creating innovations,” a FEELM representative said. “This is the first industrial end-to-end disposable recycling scheme, including manufacturers, brands, delivery companies, waste management companies, retailers and ultimately the consumers. The scheme allows us to contribute to the planet’s well-being while also positively influencing the public perception of the vaping industry.”
Fadi Maayta, president of ANDS, warned that an outright ban on disposable vaping devices could drive former smokers back to combustible cigarettes, so the industry must search for a viable solution. “If these single-use vapes are restricted or banned over environmental fears as is being talked about in some circles—smokers could lose what many believe to be a very convenient, accessible and compelling alternative to conventional cigarettes,” he said.
