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One of the world’s most vape-friendly countries, the United Kingdom, is becoming frostier toward single-use versions of the harm reduction products. The debate, which is mirrored internationally, pits environmental concerns and familiar fears of youth uptake against the specific role of disposables in helping people switch from smoking.
In January, the high-end supermarket chain Waitrose, with over 300 stores around the UK, said it’s “doing the right thing” for public health and the environment by discontinuing sales of all single-use vapes.
Waitrose is the first British supermarket to have taken such a stance. Its commercial director, Charlotte Di Cello, said in a press statement that “selling single-use vapes is not something we could justify given the impact on both the environment and the health of young people.”
The UK has generally embraced vaping. An estimated 4.3 million people here vape. Most formerly smoked—and of the remainder, the large majority currently smoke, indicating they could be on a path to switching entirely.
Young added that the single-use nature of these vapes contributes to large amounts of waste that “end up in landfill and incineration plants.”
But single-use vapes, typically made of plastic, rubber, copper and batteries, raise the issue of environmentally responsible disposal. Recent research by Material Focus, a nonprofit organization focusing on recycling electrical goods, found that 1.3 million single-use vapes are thrown away every week in the UK.
“Throwing away vapes means that we are throwing away some of the most precious materials on our planet,” Scott Butler, the group’s executive director, said in a statement. “A key part of the problem is that vapes are advertised as disposable. Producers and retailers need to work together to ensure that they should make people aware that vapes should never be binned and instead be recycled.”
In the UK, vapes are categorized as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), meaning that they should be disposed of at a household recycling center or at the shop where they were purchased. But a recent BBC News article stated that many people are unaware that some of the materials that make up a disposable vape can be recycled.
Laura Young, a climate activist who has been dubbed “The Vape Crusader” in British media for her campaign against disposables, applauded Waitrose’s decision. “Waitrose are sending a clear message that if companies are going to produce a product like this, it has to be one that is ethical,” she told Filter. She added that the single-use nature of these vapes contributes to large amounts of waste that “end up in landfill and incineration plants.”
Some lawmakers and officials are echoing this argument. In January, the Scottish government commissioned an urgent review on disposables and said it would consider a blanket ban on the devices. The previous month, the director for public health for the English city of Liverpool had also called for a ban on the basis of the devices’ environmental impact.
The other main argument against disposables is the notion that their accessibility and marketing attracts young people. Young, who collects littered vapes in her hometown of Dundee, Scotland, said that disposables were being sold in a different way to other nicotine products, and claimed that the “fruity flavors and colored packaging” were enticing youngsters.
This is a familiar argument to American ears. A so-called “youth vaping epidemic” has long been trumpeted by US media and politicians, and used as justification for bans of the flavors that most adults who switch from smoking find preferable or even essential. Youth vaping—the large majority of which was always occasional or experimental use—has declined in the US in recent years. Still, most youth who do vape—according to figures from the US Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) and Food and Drug Administration—opt for disposables.
Then again, research has suggested that if vapes weren’t available, more youth would be smoking instead, and putting themselves at far greater risk.
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