Sustainable Vaping Week has returned for its second year in a row, helping to educate vapers on how to lessen their environmental impact and spread awareness of how to responsibly dispose of used vape products. This year the campaign runs from October 14th, which also happens to be International E-Waste Day, so why not find out more about how you can become a more sustainable vaper?
What is Sustainable Vaping Week?
This week long campaign, organised by the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), aims to unite the vaping industry in an effort to educate vapers on how they can lessen the amount of vape waste they produce, and how to appropriately dispose of any vape waste they do create.
From advising on more environmentally friendly products, to how to recycle used vapes, the campaign is supported by retail stores, online vape shops, and media channels to help spread the message that as an industry we can make a difference.
Why is sustainable vaping so important?
Vaping has been a crucial tool for many as part of their stop smoking journey, becoming the most popular stop smoking aid in the UK and having a hand in seeing UK smoking rates drop to their lowest since records began. But with this rise in success it has become clear that vape waste can have a significant impact on the environment.
Unfortunately, while disposable vapes have proven to be a useful tool for many vapers, their rise in popularity has had the unintended consequence of a big rise in vape waste. These small, single-use vapes still contain a vape battery that needs to be safely disposed of, and many vapers are still not aware that disposable vapes can be recycled.
This environmental impact is one of the reasons for the Government’s proposed single-use vape ban, which would be brought in under the Environmental Protection Act, and serves as a big reminder of why responsible and sustainable vaping is so vitally important.
Recycling disposable vapes
Research from Material Focus suggests that as many as five million disposable vapes are thrown away every week, and that 70% of the people throwing them away did not know that they could be recycled. It also revealed that nearly three million used disposables are being stored by users every month at their homes and workplaces simply because they do not know how best to dispose of them.
Disposable vapes need to be processed by specialist recycling facilities, so they cannot be disposed of in your usual household recycling, but more and more locations are adding disposable vape recycling points where you can leave your used disposables, safe in the knowledge that they will be recycled responsibly.
Each of our 50+ Evapo retail stores has a recycling point for disposable vapes, so you can bring your used vapes in and leave them with us, and we will make sure that they are handled in the most environmentally conscious way. You can also head to Recycle your electricals to find your nearest vape recycling point.
By recycling your used disposable vapes you can not only ensure that all of the plastic waste does not end up in landfill, but also that the important materials inside the batteries like lithium, copper, and steel can be recovered and reused.
Can other vape products be recycled?
Yes, a lot of the vape products we use can be recycled in some way. Old vape kits and external batteries can be recycled, with the materials inside the batteries helping to make other valuable products like the batteries for electric cars. If the batteries from the kit can be removed, these can be recycled at any battery recycling point, which can usually be found in supermarkets, electronics stores, and your local Evapo shop. If the batteries cannot be removed then the kit can be recycled by taking it to the electrical waste collection point at your local recycling centre.
Any paper or cardboard packaging from your vape or e-liquids can easily be recycled at home in your household waste, just pop it in your home recycling bin. You can also recycle the bottles that your vape juice comes in by rinsing them to remove any e-liquid residue from the inside, and adding these to your home recycling.
Choosing more environmentally friendly vapes
While disposable vapes can be a handy short-term option, when you’re heading on a night out or a trip and don’t want to take your whole vape kit with you, they are not a particularly environmentally conscious option, especially when used long-term.
Switching to a reusable vape kit is the best choice you can make for reducing your vape waste. These devices have reusable batteries which can be recharged repeatedly and do not need to be thrown away after every use. The only part of a reusable vape kit which will need to be regularly replaced is the pod or coil, helping you substantially cut down the amount of plastic waste you are disposing of too.
We have lots of recommendations for reusable vapes in our blog post ‘Alternatives to disposable vapes’, along with information on e-liquids that taste just like all your favourite disposable vape flavours. You can find out more about becoming a more sustainable vaper in our ‘Guide to vaping with the least environmental impact’.
Sources
ash.org.uk 08/2024
ons.gov.uk 05/09/2023
materialfocus.org.uk 08/09/2023
