Disposable vapes are one of the most wasteful things you can buy. Time for a ban – Dr Richard Dixon

Re-usable vapes perform the same function without creating such a vast amount of waste

People who vape should choose reusable devices over disposable ones (Picture: Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)

Pressure is growing to reduce our use of plastics, internationally and at home. Our massive use of plastic globally keeps us hooked on fossil fuels and continues to cause the widespread contamination of the environment by long-lived compounds. WWF estimates that the cost to society of our use of plastics could almost double to $7 trillion by 2040. A report earlier this year found that a 75 per cent reduction in fossil-fuel-based plastics use is needed by 2050 if the world is to meet climate targets.

A new UN treaty on plastics has been making progress, with a first draft published this autumn. It proposes bans on the most problematic plastics, focusing attention on phasing out single-use products. Now a group of major financial institutions is calling for the new treaty to also oblige governments to force larger companies to report on their use of plastics.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Parliament is continuing to hear evidence on the Circular Economy Bill. This still could transform the way we consider material resources and waste, but it needs serious improvement if it is to deliver on this potential. Tough measures are needed in the Bill because our household recycling rates are well off track to meet future targets, and measures on prevention of waste, and repair and reuse of consumer goods are all at an early stage.

Disposable vapes, one of the most wasteful consumer items you can buy, are perhaps the most obvious example of our crazy attitude towards material resources. More than any other single-use item, they are clearly something which should never have been allowed on the market. They waste valuable resources and contain lithium batteries which could be recharged 500 times but are instead used just once, then dumped. A much better product exists in the form of re-usable vapes, which do exactly the same job but are rechargeable and refillable.

I wrote about disposable vapes last year. At that point, figures suggested that around 1.3 million were being thrown away every week in the UK. The latest figure is nearly eight million, partly because of better data, but largely because of the continued growth in sales, which has seen sales double over the last year.

Tens of millions of disposable vapes are consumed in Scotland every year and research by Zero Waste Scotland found that around 10 per cent end up as litter in the streets. Vape batteries have already been linked to multiple fires at waste and recycling centres. Most shops that sell them will not take them back for recycling.

Waste campaigner Laura Young recently won a well-deserved award for her great work on waste in general and specifically on banning disposable vapes. Partly because of her work, the Green MSP Gillian Mackay led a debate on disposable vapes in the Scottish Parliament in September.

Hopes for a ban are on the horizon. The UK Government has launched a consultation on smoking which could lead to a disposable-vape ban. The Scottish Government has also recently said it will consult on banning them. They are not the largest environmental problem the world faces but they are a very visible sign of our throw-away culture. A ban cannot come soon enough. The UK Government consultation closes on December 6.

Dr Richard Dixon is an environmental campaigner and consultant