Vapes containing lithium batteries are still being disposed of in household rubbish bins, despite the significant fire risk they pose, a local council has warned.

Although the sale of disposable vapes was banned in June, Biffa, the UK’s largest waste contractor, has reported handling more vapes in its collections than before the ban.

Stuart Gourley, of West Berkshire Council, stressed that it was "absolutely critical" for people to dispose of the devices correctly and not put them into their general waste.

Local authorities have been raising alarms about the dangers of lithium batteries for years. One incident in Reading in 2023 caused £20,000 worth of damage after a fire linked to improper disposal.

"It can be a real issue and a real concern and it's certainly something we have seen here in west Berkshire," Gourley said.
"It's absolutely critical that people don't put them in their black bin and they use a safe route to dispose of them."

Scott Butler, from Material Focus – an independent organisation working to prevent valuable materials from ending up in waste – said the problem was predictable.

The group’s research last year revealed that eight million disposable vapes were being discarded or littered every week.

"That is a loss of really valuable resources and a major fire risk," Butler explained.
"The producers of the vapes have invested a lot to have adapted them to create rechargeable ones, in theory.
But to most users of vapes, they don't look any different. They are not priced any differently, they don't taste any different and some behaviour that was placed into the disposable vapes culture is still there."

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