![\"Vape](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/over-20-million-vapes-not-recycled-last-year-weee-says.jpg\")
Millions of vapes are not being recycled (James Manning\/PA)<\/p>\nMore than 20 million vapes sold last year in Ireland were not returned for recycling, according to new figures.<\/p>\n
The devices contain lithium batteries, plastic and electrical parts which are not entering the recycling system in the vast majority of cases.<\/p>\n
Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Ireland has also warned they pose serious environmental and fire risks as it asked the public to never bin vapes.<\/p>\n
Millions of vapes are not being recycled (James Manning\/PA)<\/p>\n
In the 20 counties in which WEEE operates, it found that just 6% of used vape and e-cigarette devices came back for recycling.<\/p>\n
It said \u2013 in those counties \u2013 only 1.4 million of the 25 million vapes sold last year had been returned.<\/p>\n
WEEE said the actual figure was even higher when other counties were considered and because of the overall amount not accounting for illegal vape imports and unregulated sellers.<\/p>\n
The recycling scheme\u2019s chief executive Leo Donovan said its research shows low awareness of correct disposal for vapes \u2013 which are covered by a free e-waste and battery takeback system.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cResponsibility sits with every vape user to dispose of these products correctly and safely after use.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecycling them for free has never been easier, with thousands of WEEE Ireland Blue Battery Boxes available at supermarkets, newsagents, electrical retailers and local authority recycling centres nationwide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Donovan said the devices contain critical raw materials such as lithium, copper and cobalt that can be recovered and reused in manufacturing.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWhen thrown in the bin, those valuable resources are lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is also a very real fire risk when battery-powered products such as vapes become crushed or damaged during waste collection and processing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than 20 million vapes sold last year in Ireland were not returned for recycling, according to new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-454718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}