Calls are growing for a ban on disposable vapes. Eighteen environment and health groups have written to the Government demanding an end to the sale of single-use e-cigarettes to stem their “rapidly escalating threat” to public health and the environment.
It follows research earlier this year by not-for-profit organisation Material Focus that found at least 1.3 million disposable vapes are thrown away every week, equating to two vapes per second - enough to fill 22 football pitches per year. The groups, including Green Alliance, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Marine Conservation Society and the RSPCA, argue that disposable vapes are “unnecessary electrical items” that contain single use plastic, nicotine and batteries, all of which are “hazardous to the environment and wildlife when littered”.
The products also contain lithium, a metal needed to help efforts to cut carbon emissions such as manufacturing electric cars. The Material Focus study also found that ten tonnes of lithium is discarded from disposable vapes each year, the same needed for 1,200 electric vehicles.
