25,000 vapes per month on Aberdeenshire’s streets
More than 25,000 vapes are likely swept up every month from Aberdeenshire’s streets and from within the drainage fittings on roads and highways.
Aberdeenshire Council supplies waste management specialists Levenseat with around 250 tonnes of street sweepings and gully emptyings every month. They are washed and separated out into gravel, soil, sand, and organics for composting so that the materials can be re-used.
In a recent trial at Levenseat, an eddy current separator was used to reveal around 5,000 vapes from just 50 tonnes of Aberdeenshire’s sweepings and gully waste.
Vapes contaminate waste and recycling collections and the environment and should never be littered or put in any kerbside collection bins or battery bags. E-cigarettes pose a serious fire risk and are part of the fastest growing sources of electrical waste in the UK.
Manufacturing vapes uses up some of the most valuable resources on the planet—steel, aluminium, copper, lithium—which makes recycling them even more important. Recycling just ten tonnes of lithium from these products could supply enough material to produce batteries for approximately 1,200 electric cars.
Specialised drums are available at all household recycling centres across Aberdeenshire to safely store vapes, or e-cigarettes, before they are transported to Veolia in Portsmouth for recycling.
Veolia rolled out the UK’s first nationwide vape collection service and can recover 94% of all the materials inside of them.
Chair of the council’s Infrastructure Services Committee (ISC) Councillor Alan Turner said: “It is alarming how fast the rise of single use vapes has been. When we think about all the precious materials that are used to create them, just for them to be thrown away on our streets, it must surely be the truest meaning of e-waste.”
ISC Vice Chair Councillor Isobel Davidson said: “If you must buy vapes, please recycle them responsibly. When vapes are thrown away, the consequences are always felt by others. They damage our environment, cause fires in our waste streams, and place a significant financial burden on those who must clean up the mess.”
The safe disposal methods for vapes in Aberdeenshire are:
- Take them to the specialised drums at household recycling centres, separate to the WEEE container, and preferably with battery removed;
- If the battery inside a vape is easily removable, then that battery alone can be removed and disposed of in battery recycling receptacles;
- Ask your retail outlet if they provide a take-back scheme or a recycling point.
A ban on the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland is due to come into effect on 1 April 2025, under proposed legislation published on 23 February 2024, for which Aberdeenshire Council voiced its support back in June of 2023.
New research by Material Focus has identified that a quarter of a billion plus vapes will be thrown away in the UK on the run up to the ban. UK-wise sales of disposable single-use vapes are now around 360 million per annum with over 5 million of them thrown away every week—the equivalent of eight vapes per second.