Disposing of Disposables | Your Guide to Recycling Vapes

02 June 2023 by CSG

Vapes have proven to be a popular alternative to smoking in recent years. Yearly, people in the UK buy half a billion vapes, with 3 million vapes sent for disposal every week (that’s 2 every second!). 1.3 million of those sent for disposal are single use vapes.

With disposable vapes accounting for more than 22 football pitches of waste every year, CSG wanted to let you know how you can recycle your disposables. As a company, we believe that waste disposal should limit the amount of harm to the environment.

One of the main reasons disposable vapes have become so popular is their convenience. Often shaped like a pen, they contain a pre-filled liquid tank, a lithium battery, and a cotton wick coil. As many vapes are single use, they cannot be recharged or re-filled with liquid and must be disposed of after use.

Compared to other vaping alternatives, their lifespan does not come close to re-chargeable options. Due to only lasting for a limited time, some people can go through a device a day. This is far from environmentally friendly if these are being disposed of incorrectly.

Disposable vapes typically contain steel, aluminium, plastics and lithium batteries. If not recycled, these materials can take thousands of years to decompose. They also pose a serious fire risk when discarded of incorrectly. The lithium-ion batteries used in disposable vapes are also rechargeable, but due to being single use, they don’t have a charging port so must be disposed of. This is a waste of very useful resources.

Risks of improper disposal

Disposable vapes are most popular among the ages of 18-34 as they are easy to use and cheap to buy. But environmental activists have called for a ban due to their environmental impact.

Vape manufacturers say that although disposables aren’t the most environmentally friendly devices, they are still less damaging to the environment than smoking cigarettes. This is due to cigarette filter tips being the most littered object in the world with 4.5 trillion being tossed each year. These filters can take over a decade to decompose.

Along with vapes being an environmental risk, they can also be a fire risk if incorrectly disposed of. It’s common for a small fire to break out at a recycling centre with the UK experiencing an average of one per day. This is believed to be primarily due to improper disposal of batteries, known as “zombie” batteries.

Between April 2019 and March 2020, lithium batteries were suspected to have caused around 250 fires at waste facilities. That is 38% of all fires and this figure has been increasing year on year.

How can you do it better?

Because vapes are classed as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) they can be easily recycled at household recycling centres and some vape shops have recycling bins. They should not be put into general waste or household waste bins. This will limit the amount of pollution and help to protect the environment while also reducing waste sent to landfill.

Here’s the signs to look out for at your local recycling centre or recycling point when trying to recycle disposable vapes or reusable vapes.

Disposal of vapes has become an industry wide problem within waste disposal sites across the UK. This is due to battery recyclers not wanting any of the electronic components and WEEE waste companies not wanting batteries. This is why most recycling centres will dismantle vapes in separate recoverable parts. For reusable vapes (also known as vape kits), make sure you have removed the battery before recycling.

Regardless, research has found that many people are unaware that disposable vapes can be recycled. Incorrect disposal can potentially release plastic, electronical and hazardous chemical waste into the environment. There’s also concern about the loss of lithium contained in disposable vape batteries. Lithium is a critical material that is in high demand. It is important for making batteries to help the transition away from fossil fuels.

There is also a risk that incorrect disposal can cause fires and other health and safety risks at landfill sites. There has even been reports of bin lorries catching on fire! If this happens, all the waste being carried can no longer be recycled and must instead go to landfill.

Here’s a video on how to dispose of small amounts of disposable vapes properly:

Can CSG help?

CSG don’t operate any recycling centres and are not set up to assist with the disposal of your own personal vapes. For larger industrial quantities, we can utilise our extensive contacts to help you.

With our help, CSG’s UK partner sites can recover and recycle waste vapes. Vapes are first dismantled down by CSG to their separate recoverable parts and these are sent for recovery. We also send industrial quantities of vape liquid for Trans Frontier Shipment, which is then turned into energy in waste to energy facilities.

If you would like to see if CSG can help with your waste disposal needs, feel free to give us a call on 0800 011 6600 or click here.