It is well worth listening to the varied concerns from Greenpeace about how society is polluting the environment with ever new gadgets. Vapes were hailed by smokers as the best way to transition from smoking to stopping it or to avoid even starting. Manufacturers immediately saw their chance: the possibility of making money by developing single use vapes with different tastes when puffing and of course making them look attractive to children with the varied colour scheme.
Greenpeace is mostly concerned with the disposable single use vapes: “Two vapes are thrown away every second in the UK, 1.3 million disposable vapes each week, enough waste to fill 22 football pitches. It needs to be tackled. 110,000 people so far have signed the petition to ban single use vapes.”
Forty countries have already banned or restricted them. According to Greenpeace: “3/4 of Brits think they should be banned. Single disposable vapes have now become an unwanted symbol of today’s throwaway culture.”
A government ban is urgently needed of this wasteful product. Why call for a ban? “For one thing it does not make sense to keep flooding the market with single disposable vapes (600 puffs) when we have already reusable alternatives,” Greenpeace states. In addition: “They are made from plastic, planet-wrecking oil.”
Vapes are electronic devices so they can’t be recycled with normal household waste and have even caused fires in bin lorries and at waste management centres.
It might be worth asking what other piece of technology is designed to be thrown away after one use.
Greenpeace, London N1 2PN – www.greenpeace.org.uk
Image Credits: https://www.ecigclick.co.uk .
Great article Heidi. The more awareness of this issue the better. As an update, the following is an extract from the latest issue of Strandliners’ online magazine,The Fulmar:
“The number of disposable vapes discarded has quadrupled in the last year to 5 million per week, or 8 every second, according to research by Material Focus. Around 30 million vapes are sold in the UK every month, demonstrating how popular they have become, partly due to their appeal to children and young adults.
Disposable vapes are not easy to recycle as they contain many different materials, including copper wires and lithium batteries which are valuable resources. The research estimated that the vapes thrown away in a year contain enough lithium to power 5,000 cars. Shops that sell vapes are obliged to take them back, but many do not, due to the cost involved. From those that do, the vapes are taken to a specialised recycling facility where they are dismantled by hand and the valuable components extracted. It is estimated that the potential cost of recycling the vapes collected is £200 million, none of which is being met by producers.
Pressure is growing on the government to take action, following recommendations by local councils, paediatricians and public waste campaigners that they should be banned on health and environmental grounds. ”
Incidentally, the image does not show single-use vapes, which are the issue here, but liquid for refillable vapes.
What baffles me is the different flavours you can buy , never in my life have I seen different flavours in cigarettes as in vapes, what is the world coming to !!
I too am stunned at all the delicious sounding flavours. Walking around The Salts cricket pitch and the skateboard park, etc, is always an education in witnessing what a large variety is on offer scattered on the ground.