WRAP statement on the move to ban disposable vapes in the UK.
Claire Shrewsbury, Director of Insights and Innovation at WRAP:
“WRAP welcomes the move to ban disposable vapes in the UK. Single use vapes consume huge amounts of natural resources and contribute to plastic and electrical waste and littering. They present a fire hazard at waste facilities and use an estimated 5,000 electric vehicle batteries worth of lithium per year. An estimated five million disposable vapes are discarded each week - equivalent to eight every second. With reusable vapes easily available to help people wishing to quit smoking, and disposable vapes linked with use by children, WRAP supports this ban.”
Government regulation, including bans, has a critical role to play in creating a level playing field for businesses wanting to be more socially responsible and reduce waste. WRAP is calling for a packaging ban on 21 fruit and vegetable items.
Notes to Editor
WRAP is a global environmental action NGO catalysing policy makers, businesses and individuals to transform the systems that create our food, textiles and manufactured products. Together these account for nearly 50% of global greenhouse emissions. Our goal is to enable the world to transition from the old take-make-dispose model of production to more sustainable approaches that will radically reduce waste and carbon emissions from everyday products. To do so we examine sustainability challenges through the lens of people’s day-to-day lives and create solutions that can transform entire systems to benefit the planet, nature and people.
Our work includes: UK Plastics Pact, Courtauld Commitment 2030, Textiles 2030 and the campaigns Love Food Hate Waste and Recycle Now. We run Food Waste Action Week and Recycle Week.