Vaping has increased in popularity over the last couple of years with many new products and market entrants. Vape batteries contain lithium (vital component inside electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage batteries), aluminium, steel, copper, plastics which could be recycled, saving precious resources from being lost forever.
Hundreds of millions of single-use vapes have been sold in the UK – and at least over a million a week are being binned and sent to landfill or incineration. Instead of binning, these need to be recycled separately from general waste and recycling.
Producers, importers, distributors and retailers all have legal and financial responsibilities under UK waste electrical (WEEE) and portable battery regulations.
Regulation
You have certain responsibilities if you sell electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 (WEEE) apply regardless of how you sell the products, whether direct or by internet, mail order or telephone.
Producer responsibilities
- The first UK registered company who places electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) on the market is the “producer”.
- This can be the manufacturer, importer or distributor.
- You must register as a producer annually, dependent on how much EEE you sell (less than 5 tonnes/ year – register with your environmental regulator as a small producer – more than 5 tonnes/ year – pay to join a Producer Compliance Scheme (PCS) who will take on your obligations to finance the collection, treatment, recovering and disposal of WEEE.)
- As a producer you must also: mark electrical products with the crossed out wheelie bin symbol and a date mark, provide information on reuse and environmentally sound treatment of the products and components (includes materials, dangerous substances and preparations) within one year of putting them on the market, and provide your distributors with your producer registration number
If you do not register as a small producer or join a PCS you are committing an offence and may face enforcement action.
Retailer responsibilities
Check if your business is exempt : ‘Very small WEEE’ are items of waste electrical and electronic equipment that are less than 25cm on their longest side. Most vape products would be considered ‘Very small WEEE’.
You must take back all items of ‘very small WEEE’ in store if your electrical and electronic equipment sales area is greater than 400 square metres including aisle, display and shelf space.
All retailers selling electricals (including vapes) who are not exempt need to provide a way for customers buying new electricals to dispose of their old electricals on a like for-like basis regardless of how you sell the products, whether direct or by internet, mail order or telephone.
You have 3 options to offer this take-back service to your customers:
- provide a free, in store, take back service
- set up an alternative, free take back service
- join the Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS) – if you sell electricals worth < £100k, or online only
Retailer take-back – if you sell electricals online only
Sign up to the Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS) who manage your take-back obligations on your behalf.
- You pay a fee that covers your waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) obligations until 31 December 2023.
- This money goes towards supporting the recycling centres run by local authorities.
- You’ll need to keep a record of what information you give to your customers about where they should take their WEEE.
Retailer take-back – if you sell <£100k of electricals
- Sign up to the Distributor Takeback Scheme (DTS) who manage your take back obligations on your behalf
- You pay a fee that covers your waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) obligations until 31 December 2023.
- This money goes towards supporting the recycling centres run by local authorities.
- You’ll need to keep a record of what information you give to your customers about where they should take their WEEE.
Retailer take-back – if you sell >£100k of electricals
(equivalent to ~50 single use vapes per day)
If your business sells £100,000 or more of electricals per year and has physical stores you’ll need to take back waste in store, or set up an alternative collection point instead.
- In-store take-back
- Must be free (but can charge for collecting items from customers’ homes)
- Be clearly communicated to customers
- Give customers at least 28 days to bring back their waste item.
- Take back all types of electrical and electronic equipment that you sell – you can choose to extend your service to cover all kinds of electrical and electronic waste.
- Brands with multi-site stores selling a variety of different products may need to communicate differently in different stores, and should ensure that store staff advise consumers, that larger goods can only be returned to specific stores.
- If your electrical and electronic equipment sales area is > 400m2 including aisle, display and shelf space, you must accept any very small electricals* at any store, regardless of whether someone buys a new electrical item there.
Communicating to consumers
For information on how to organise in-store take-back of products, as well as the recommended messaging and communications to consumers, download the full briefing document prepared by Material Focus, by clicking on their logo below.
You can access the full Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013, and read the UK Government guidance on the regulations here.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
Although increasingly popular and very convenient, single use vapes are not the most environmentally responsible way to vape. They’re one of the most difficult vaping products to dispose of and recycle responsibly, which is largely due to the built-in battery that cannot easily be removed.
It’s estimated that over 1.3 million disposable vapes are finding their way into landfill or incineration every week in the UK alone. The industry must play its part in driving consumer behaviour change – both by reducing waste in the first place, and by encouraging more people to recycle their vapes – especially their used single use products.
Reduce and reuse
The good news for consumers is there are plenty of existing alternatives to disposable vapes, and they don’t have to compromise on flavour. These are more eco-friendly and will save your customers money too.
The IBVTA encourages its members to talk to their customers about more sustainable products.
Pre-filled pod kits are a simple option and a great choice for many vapers switching from single use products. The pods these vapes use don’t need filling and the kit doesn’t require any set-up or maintenance. All they have to do is remember to charge the battery and replace the pod when it runs out. They don’t throw away the battery and these products generate a lot less plastic waste.
Refillable kits are a more cost-effective way of vaping than traditional single use vapes, and are much better for the environment. A vaper can refill this kind of product at least 10 times before the atomizer expires. At this point they simply recycle the whole device as they would with a disposable vape. That means that it will last as long as up to 10 disposables and will also be reducing waste by up to 90%.
Refillable & rechargeable tank and pod kits are by far the most cost-effective way of vaping and are often referred to as ‘open tank’ vape kits. Similar to a refillable kit, a vaper refills these kits with e-liquid and recharges the battery. However, the only part of these kits they’ll need to replace will be the atomizers or ‘coils’. The batteries can be recharged up to 300 times, so they are by far the better option for the environment.
Recycle
Far too few vape products, especially single use products, are recycled because not enough consumers are aware they can be recycled.
Everyone along the supply chain need to help raise awareness, especially retailers.
Visit Material Focus for more resources and messaging you can use within your business to encourage more of your customers to recycle their used products.
Recycling Solutions
For UK vape businesses, finding the right recycling partners can be difficult, but we have identified AATF registered recycling businesses who are doing things the right way. Whether you’re a producer or a retailer, the businesses we have identified will help your business meet your legal obligations and enable greater consumer behaviour change.
GAP Waste Management provides a national recycling solution for all electrical waste. We have built a dedicated and standalone recycling facility for the compliant disposal of e-cigarettes and vapes at our fully licenced site in Gateshead. Our system is safe, helps you and your customers protect the environment and has been approved by the Environment Agency. The collection and recycling of vapes is covered under the WEEE Regulations 2013.
GAP provides a full service including appropriate containers and collections from shops. There are two Point of Sale options for retailers – the Vape Tube and the Vape Box. The Vape Tube allows users to know easily what is being collected and can be placed in areas where the public can clearly see it. The Vape box is designed for storage away from public access areas or for use in non-retail locations.
GAP can send containers direct to single locations or in bulk to distribution centres for onward shipping. All containers come complete with stickers explaining what material can be stored inside and collection request details.
When your container is full, all you need to do is ring 0191 438 6438 or email IBVTA@gapgroupuk.com and our national collection agent will come to collect the vapes for recycling and leave your container for future use. You will be provided with appropriate duty of care paperwork, detailing when the collection was made, by whom and where the material will be taken. These details are key to showing the Environment Agency that you are complying with the WEEE Regulations and that your waste is being correctly recycled.
When the waste has been collected from your site, it is transported to a bulking point and then shipped in large loads to GAP’s facility. This helps keep down the carbon footprint. When we receive the bulked waste where we recycle and recover the component parts.
A fully compliant national collection and recycling solution for all types of vapes.
To order a container or collection please email IBVTA@gapgroupuk.com or ring 0191 438 6438.
Waste Experts’ state of the art Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (AATF) in Huddersfield is fully permitted and licensed to compliantly recycle all types of vapes and e-cigarettes. The composition of these materials makes mechanical processing impractical, however Waste Experts have an unrivalled recycling process for this waste stream and are already recycling and recovering tonnes of materials from the vapes we collect each day.
Waste Experts are fully equipped to handle all types of vapes, making our vape recycling solution even more accessible and simple to use without the requirement for unnecessary segregation.
Our nationwide fleet of vehicles, ranging from a van to an articulated lorry (and every size in between), means we have the largest and most flexible coverage in the industry and can collect vapes from any UK location.
Whether you are an independent vape store, a large high street retailer or a manufacturer of vapes, Waste Experts can help keep your business compliant.
To get a quote for how Waste Experts can help your business, click here or call 0800 804 8612.
Global resource management company Veolia has launched a national vape collection service to help provide safe disposal and recycling routes for the three million vapes currently thrown away each week.
We take all your items to an Approved Authorised Treatment Facility (AATF) for disposal. This guarantees that any recycling and final disposal are done in accordance with WEEE Regulations
To get a free quote, click here.