The Disposal of Disposable Vapes in the UK

A non-profit organization, Material Focus, established to help the UK achieve its power reuse and recovery goals, has found that Britons discard two e-cigarettes per second, wasting the "scarce lithium materials needed for electric vehicles.

A recent study on disposable electronic cigarettes was conducted in collaboration with the Investigative Journalism Bureau, and found that 500 million e-cigarettes are sold in the UK annually. Almost one-fifth of UK adults have purchased a disposable e-cigarette.

According to Material Focus, more than 50% of disposable e-cigarettes are discarded and the average proportion for all types of e-cigarettes is 33%.

A non-profit organization has stated that discarded e-cigarettes are contributing to the "fastest-growing waste stream in the UK," with over 155,000 tonnes of electronic waste being discarded each year and British households hoarding 527 million electrical items.

The problem with disposable e-cigarettes is that 1.3 million of them are disposed of every week. 14 million disposable e-cigarettes are sold every month, adding up to 167.5 million per year. 37% of people who bought e-cigarettes last year purchased disposable ones, with this number increasing to 52% among those aged 18-34.

According to Material Focus, electronic cigarettes contain a range of materials that are "lost forever" when they are thrown away. Despite being covered in plastic, the lithium in the batteries is a valuable material. On average, each disposable e-cigarette contains 0.15 grams of lithium and with 1.3 million being disposed of each week, this results in "10 tonnes of lithium" being thrown away each year. Material Focus says this is equivalent to the lithium batteries found in 1,200 electric cars.

Material Focus has issued a warning stating that lithium batteries pose a danger of fire when discarded. When the batteries are eventually placed in trash bins or picked up by recycling trucks with other materials, they can become crushed during the waste and recycling process, increasing the risk of puncture, spontaneous combustion, and fire.

These fires have the potential to put both the public and waste management operators at risk, causing street and waste center fires throughout the UK, and resulting in millions of pounds in damages.

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