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UK ministers are reportedly poised to announce a nationwide ban on single-use vapes in the coming week. With their considerable ecological impact considered in discussions, the chief concern is that children are becoming addicted.
Your local off license is about to become a lot less colourful in the coming weeks, if reports are to be believed.
After much umming and ahing, UK ministers are reportedly on the cusp of finally following through with a nationwide ban on single-use vapes before the end of the month. That’s right, soon a walk down Oxford Street may no longer be synonymous with breathing in secondary plumes of ‘Pineapple Ice’.
Since their commercial explosion in 2019, ‘Elf Bar’ and ‘Lost Mary’ devices in particular have become arguably the largest ecological scourge of Europe.
A reported five million vapes are said to be disposed of every week in the UK alone, which is roughly a fourfold increase on the volume of 2022. Suffice to say, they’re popular and not going anywhere without intervention.
Scott Butler, an executive director at electronics recycling firm Material Focus, describes single-use vapes as ‘a strong contender for being the most environmentally wasteful, damaging, and dangerous consumer product ever made.’
Despite the harrowing reality that some eight vapes are thrown away every second – along with enough lithium to create 5,000 electric car batteries a year – the real sticking point for the Department of Health and Social Care has always been the packaging.
