Is the vape cloud clearing?

Shannon Mead, Executive Director, No More Butts, considers the progress made on vaping reforms in the past year and asks, is it enough.

With reports suggesting that Australia imports more than 90 million vapes annually and our own calculations showing that at least one million vapes were being landfilled each week, No More Butts has been advocating for governments to address vape waste for two-and-a-half years. Despite the recent bans, we haven’t seen a slowdown in litter or landfill rates. Worryingly, we have seen a steady increase in fires caused by lithium-ion batteries (such as those found in vapes) in bins, trucks, and facilities across Australia.

Aren’t vapes banned?

Just over a year ago, the Federal Minister for Health and Aged Care, Mark Butler announced that he would take action on vaping. After legislation was passed in late 2023, from 1 January 2024, all single-use disposable vapes were banned for import. On 1 March, a ban on all other vapes followed, unless they had an import licence and a permit.

However, as vapes weren’t illegal to import or sell (unless they were known, or found, to contain nicotine), vape stores have remained open and able to continue to sell – what they are marketing as – non-nicotine vapes. There has been further consultation this year and there is now legislation being debated that proposes to ban the production and sale (as well as importation) of all vaping devices, except those available at a pharmacy to people holding a valid prescription, which must be obtained from a licensed medical professional.

There are some individuals, associations and parties that are hoping nicotine vapes instead become regulated, meaning that they would be available for sale at tobacconists and supermarkets, just like cigarettes.

Regardless of the outcome, it’s our opinion that we will continue to see tens of millions of vapes consumed and disposed of each year in Australia and we need an effective disposal scheme.

Current disposal options

For years, there has been confusion on what to do with vapes. Some information was directing consumers to drop their used vapes into a B-cycle bin, but this was not an option, due to contamination and funding. Some councils were collecting vapes, but many were unsure how to dispose of them. The situation has slightly improved, but Australia still lacks a funded, nationally co-ordinated disposal scheme.

On-demand service RecycleSmart includes vapes in the cost of its collections and reports that it collects vapes from many customers across New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia. Users of RecycleSmart across 16 partner councils in New South Wales can include vapes in their limited free collections each year. Customers are encouraged to separate vapes and other e-waste from anything else being recycled to help them sort things correctly. 

RecycleSmart is bridging the gap between recyclers and consumers and is working with e-waste recycler Ecocycle on solutions. Recovering the nicotine liquids is not currently possible, but they are destroyed with the byproducts driven off through carbon filtration in a pre-distillation process. Ecocycle also pre-treats liquids and salts through thermal distillation under vacuum. These treated vapes then go through a mechanical mill with a series of separation processes that separate ferrous and non-ferrous metals, plastic, mixed metal dust and any other rubbish.

Building on existing work, Perth Chemical Specialists (PCS) is involved in a study looking at the amount of vapes collected, including the type, as well as material composition. 

The Western Australia Waste Authority is funding this study, with the City of Stirling hosting the collection. The Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) is administering the program and electrical contractor PCS is dismantling the vapes. 

Reece Russell, from PCS, notes that the method of dismantling and sending the toxic components for energy recovery is labour intensive but significantly mitigates environmental risks from nicotine contaminated wastewater.

There are solutions being promoted by other battery recycling companies, including those that manage bulk disposal. The hope is that these solutions can be stylised to fit the demands of the market. 

But should councils, schools and businesses be expected to pay for the waste created by the vaping industry?

Voluntary, or mandatory?

The Battery Stewardship Council (BSC) (which runs the voluntary B-cycle battery recycling program) has written a white paper outlining the opportunity to extend the scope of the program. 

It notes that funding will be required to include new products such as vapes, as there is simply no way to collect levies from the producers, unlike legitimate importers and distributors. Six months later, there has been no response shared. The National Battery Strategy paper that was released in May 2024 doesn’t even mention vaping devices.

No More Butts earlier called for vapes to be included in the proposed Federal Government scheme for Small Electrical and Electronic Equipment (SEEE) and Solar Photovoltaics (PV). The Total Environment Centre (TEC) also made a submission to this effect, believing that the scheme will need to be sufficiently funded to cover orphan products, being those products created prior to the emergence of the scheme, or entering the market through the underground economy without contribution to the scheme, such as vapes.

According to Mark Zihrul from TEC, the longer we delay implementing a mandatory product stewardship scheme covering all e-waste, including vapes and batteries, the greater the cost will be to cover the waste arising from this ever-increasing cohort of waste.

Other groups and associations have called for a refund program, or a deposit scheme, in line with our own call two years ago. However, if the legislation being debated currently gets passed, there won’t be many retailers or a mechanism to charge a levy. 

Without a legal importation channel, or retail footprint, a disposal scheme requires funding from the government. This funding could come from a portion of penalties for intercepted vapes, or from tobacco excise and duties.

We also need the implementation of a return scheme (including a levy), with drop-off points at all pharmacies nationwide, in preparation for the expected foot traffic in the coming months, assuming the legislation passes.

No matter how it is funded, the cost of inaction is destined to be more than the cost of taking action now.