Hendlin said that this can sometimes make it
“virtually impossible” to sustainably dispose of many
products, especially those that can’t be washed out
before being thrown away, such as pods.
“The question is: well, what do we do with these
things? It would be really easy, from an industrial
manufacturing standpoint, to use these pods
again and there’s no reason why we can’t.
“A lot of people get their pods delivered via mail and it
would be easy to have reverse logistics, so when you
get your next shipment you give back your pods, like
milk bottle deposit and collection.”
Making recyclability easier for vapers is also a
priority for Liam Humberstone, engagement and
stewardship lead for the steering committee of the
Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA).
He said:
“As an industry, we need to fi gure out what is recyclable
and how it can best be recycled. Our business – Totally
Wicked – has recently ensured that all components in
an e-liquid package are recyclable and we’re having a
big push for our customers to recycle these.
“Obviously, the actual e-liquid needs to go into
treatment plants and not rainwater drainage, so if
there’s a drop of e-liquid left in your bottle you need
to wash it out and make sure that you do it in a sink
so that it’s going into the sewers and not into the land.”
Many vapers and eco-aware industry leaders have
blamed TPD regulations for creating something of a
plastic problem among the industry, which has been
compounded by capping e-liquid bottles containing
nicotine to 10ml.
Humberstone agrees.
“That’s the obvious environmental own-goal that
came from the regulations and I really don’t think it
was necessary.
“If there wasn’t a child-locked top that would be a
reasonable argument for 10ml bottles but, because
there is, I don’t think that 20 or 30ml bottles would
be a problem.”
However, though it’s not ideal to be throwing away a
lot of plastic bottles, vapers can at least rest in the
knowledge that their individual impact is much less
than that of a smoker.
Humberstone said:
“When you think about a 10ml bottle of e-liquid at
reasonable strength, that’s the equivalent of two to
three packets of cigarettes. That’s 50 cigarette butts
that aren’t going into landfi ll or the ocean.
“I think with all environmental issues, it’s more or less
a case of fi nding a better way of thinking about it.
Reduce, reuse, recycle is defi nitely the key to this still.”
“As an industry,
we need to fi gure
out what is
recyclable of what
we produce and
how it can best be
recycled”
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