UKVIA urges e-cigarette industry to innovate for recycling

The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) is urging its members and the wider industry to innovate electronic cigarette products to make them easier for waste management authorities to recycle.

This move was made due to mounting pressure to ban disposable e-cigarettes.

On January 3rd, the high-end supermarket chain Waitrose announced its complete withdrawal from the disposable e-cigarette market. "Considering the impact on the environment and the health of young people, we cannot prove that selling disposable e-cigarettes is reasonable," said Commercial Director Charlotte Di Cello.

Although environmentalists have expressed their approval of the move, advocates of electronic cigarettes argue that Waitrose could do more to protect public health and the planet by refusing to sell the world's most littered combustible cigarettes.

Just five days later, Scottish PhD student Laura Young shared a video on Twitter documenting her collection of 55 discarded disposable e-cigarettes during a walk with her dog. The video quickly went viral online.

Young's Twitter handle is @LessWasteLaura. She posted two follow-up tweets and called for a ban on single-use e-cigarettes, receiving public support.

After drumming up support for the anti-single-use e-cigarette movement surrounding her, the Scottish government announced that they are "currently exploring new issues arising from single-use e-cigarettes and urging consumers to dispose of them responsibly.