Popularity of disposable vapes poses fire risk at Whanganui waste facilities

The lithium contained within the battery of a disposable vape could start a fire if compressed. Photo / Bevan Conley

Rising levels of disposable vapes are a fire hazard for landfills and a logistical headache for Whanganui recycling companies, as the Government moves to ban the sale of disposable and reusable vapes.

Action on Smoking and Health NZ (ASH NZ) director Ben Youdan said disposable vapes produced an “incredible amount of electronic waste”.

“As far as I know there’s no recycling facility for them in New Zealand.

“Pilot schemes to try to get people to return them for recycling in the UK haven’t been successful.”

He said the cost of recycling vapes was more than the price to manufacture them, and locations where vapes could be returned for specialist recycling were too far and scarce for people to be bothered using them.

The Government announced on Tuesday a range of measures to make it harder for young people to pick up and continue vaping.

Disposable or single-use vape products could not be sold from November, while reusable vapes could not be sold from March.

Vapes sold after March will have to include removeable or replaceable batteries.

A Whanganui Waste Management spokesperson said the lithium contained within the rechargeable battery of an e-cigarette was a fire hazard.

It was unclear whether vapes had caused fires to start at the Whanganui Waste Transfer Station, but a spokesperson said lithium batteries being compressed or broken posed a “big risk” for fires in the waste and recycling industry.

“Fires caused by larger batteries are identifiable, but when they begin from something as small as a vape it’s often destroyed and unidentifiable.”

Youdan said single-use, disposable vapes had risen considerably as one of the main types used in the country.

“They’re going to the landfill or just being discarded, and the problem with discarding them is the plastics in them take forever to break down in the environment.”

Lithium was present in both disposable vapes and rechargeable or refillable vapes, and the single-use nature of disposable vapes meant higher levels of harmful waste were being produced.

Whanganui Recycling Centre manager Dale Cobb said there was currently no process for the collection of old vapes for recycling.

“Lithium and rechargeable batteries are not collectable items, anything with lithium is quite a lethal product so there’s no current place to send lithium products for recycling or re-purposing at this stage.”

Cobb said the Recycling Centre had to have a purposeful destination for a product, rather than just collecting it and then sending it to the landfill.

“We haven’t had anyone trying to dump vapes at present but I’m guessing there will come a time.”

A spokesperson from the Whanganui Waste Transfer Station said vapes and e-cigarettes were too small and made up of too many different materials: plastic, electronics, and a lithium battery, to be efficiently recycled.

“The batteries can be removed and dropped in the transfer station’s battery recycling receptacle.

“Waste Management then safely packages the batteries and sends them to a partner company where they are split into their component parts, to be reused by battery manufacturers.”

Youdan said disposable vapes could be bought for as little as $5 whereas vaping products with a cartridge or tank system were more expensive.

He said disposable vapes were the dominant product being used by underage people experimenting with vaping.

“$5 is not a big barrier to having a go, and it’s an entry point for younger kids because they’re so cheap and easy to conceal.”