Fire and ‘sheer volume’: how Britain’s 6m-vape problem is putting recycling under strain | Vaping

IIt’s 2 p.m. and Ana, 47, has just started her afternoon shift at the Suez recycling plant near Birmingham city center, standing under a sign reading “Non-ferrous sorting station” with a bucket of vapes in front of her. Sorting and dismantling them is part of her job as a site operator.

Recycling them is not easy. Each bucket holds between 40 and 50 devices, and over the course of a shift, she uses about half a bucket. Using a hammer, she must open each vape, remove the batteries, and separate each component into a different container.

Single-use vapes were banned in June last year, but more than 6 million vapes and vape pods are still thrown away every week in the UK. Waste management companies say the sheer volume of waste is straining recycling systems, while lithium-ion batteries hidden inside devices are causing fires.

As Ana works, an explosion of sweet scent fills the air; She’s not worried about the explosion of vapes, she says, it’s never happened to her before. But while vapes may not be dangerous at this stage of sorting, they can become dangerous when they are crushed or damaged, such as during waste collection and storage.

In 2025, 670 fires occurred at Suez sites in the UK. Of these, 368 have been confirmed to be caused by batteries or vapes, and another 176 may be related. People working at these sites say people simply don’t understand that vapes can’t be thrown away or think — incorrectly — that they can be recycled with household products. Instead, they must be deposited at dedicated electrical recycling points.

“Vapers have been suspected of causing more than 80% of fires reported at our sites last year, with the numbers and trend continuing through to 2026,” says Dr Adam Read, head of sustainability and external affairs at Suez.

“This is despite the ban on disposable vapes coming into force in mid-2025. With over 6 million vapes still being thrown away each week, it’s clear that the perception of these items remains that they are disposable items. The problem is that people often don’t realize the danger batteries pose when not disposed of properly and think they are doing the right thing by putting them in recycling.”

Read adds: “Across the sector we estimate that around £1 billion a year is spent, or needs to be spent, to tackle this problem… Landfills are now considered by insurers to be among the most at-risk facilities due to the prevalence of fires. »

He remembers a major fire four years ago in Aberdeen that destroyed the facility. “That’s £20m of investment gone… These are serious risks,” he says.

The root cause, Read says, is simple: frequency. “Other battery-powered items, like electric toothbrushes, don’t show up in the waste stream as often because people keep them for years. But vapes are used and thrown away constantly. It’s sheer volume.”

Every fire investigation now starts the same way. “We almost always look for lithium-ion batteries as a starting point, and then ask ourselves: Was it a vape? »

While the ban on disposable vapes was intended to solve the problem, industry figures say it simply displaced it.

At the Birmingham recycling site, since operations began at 6 a.m., around 150 vapes have already been found in just six hours. Staff say the devices have changed: Instead of once-ubiquitous disposable brands like Elfbar, larger, refillable vapes, like Hayati, are now more common in the waste stream.

An Elfbar spokesperson said: “Exhausted devices and refills should always be disposed of responsibly. Vapers are encouraged to use take-back services provided by retailers selling vapes, who have a legal obligation to accept them. Thousands of recycling points can also be found across the UK on Material Focus’ Recycle Your Electricals website.”

Hayati did not respond to attempts to contact him for comment.

Because these devices are often not much more expensive than disposable devices, critics say users have little incentive to change their behavior.

Steve Daniels, operations director at Suez, says: “We’re seeing a change in the size of discarded vapes, because those are the ones that need to be recharged. We used to see smaller vapes, like the 600 puff ones, but now, as you’ll see on the production floor, they’re the larger, rechargeable types – and they have bigger batteries.”

When recycled materials enter the factory, they are first sorted by size. Larger non-compliant items (such as nitrous oxide containers) are often removed. However, increasingly common larger vaping devices are increasingly escaping this step and are instead identified later during aluminum separation, where they often appear among crushed cans.

Read says producers should take more responsibility for the products they make. “We argued that if a vape costs £10, there should be a £5 handling charge. This reflects the true cost of handling it safely,” he says. “This financial engine could change behavior. »

Another proposed solution is a deposit system for vapes, similar to that provided for beverage containers.

“If people could return their vapes and get £1 or £2 back, you would significantly reduce the number of cigarettes ending up in regular waste,” he says. “This could reduce the risk of fire by 70 to 90 percent. »

For now, the burden falls on workers like Ana, who carefully dismantle the devices by hand, one bucket at a time.

A government spokesperson said: “We are determined that more vapes are recycled correctly and safely, and have made it mandatory for all vape retailers to provide recycling bins. We will continue to work with Trading Standards and local authorities to build on the 10,500 take-back bins already on our high streets.”