{"id":457269,"date":"2026-05-19T21:10:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:10:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457269\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:10:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:10:16","slug":"potential-to-cause-fire-the-one-place-never-to-put-old-vapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457269\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Potential to cause fire&#8217; &#8211; The one place never to put old vapes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>People who throw old vapes away in the bin at home risk starting a fire, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Ireland have warned.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The company has estimated that while 25 million vapes in Ireland are sold every year, a mere 1.5 million of those are recycled.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstalk.com\/shows\/newstalk-breakfast-234855\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newstalk Breakfast<\/a>, CEO Leo Donovan said the sale of vapes has \u201creally accelerated\u201d in recent years and getting more people to recycle them is a \u201cbig challenge\u201d for the industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnder an EU regulation, we have to be getting back 65% of all electronic products sold on the market,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLook, we&#8217;re only getting back about 6% of the vapes and it&#8217;s very important, not only from an environmental point of view to get back all electronic products, we also have a requirement to get back 63% of all batteries that are placed on the market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1626121\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/2RXTPJA.jpg\" alt=\"Single use disposable vapes lying discarded on the road\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\"\/> Single use disposable vapes lying discarded on the road. Picture by: Richard Newton \/ Alamy Stock Photo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In 2023, the EPA estimated that only 42% of municipal waste was recycled in Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It means the State is likely to miss an EU recycling target of 60% and be fined a large sum by the European Commission.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a deficit of critical raw materials in Europe,\u201d Mr Donovan explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, it is a big push by the EU Commission; it&#8217;s part of the circular economy initiative that we&#8217;ve just recently issued out here in Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd that is to get the mindset of the public, thinking of sustainability, think of circularity and think of the future generations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf we throw away these critical raw materials, then we won&#8217;t have them for future manufacturing of new products.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1958119\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1127584.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"578\"\/> A person vaping. Picture by: PA Wire\/PA Images.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even if recycling was not an issue, Mr Donovan added that there are huge safety concerns about the incorrect disposal of vapes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut when it comes to the vapes, the vapes also have a particular hazard in relation to the potential to cause fires,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s the key message we want to get out today; do not bin your vapes into your ordinary waste bin or your dry recycling bin that you have at home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMake sure you bring it back to a specific collection point, be it a battery recycling box.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou see a lot of the wee Ireland blue battery boxes around; anybody who sells a vape or sells a battery has a legal obligation to take back that product free of charge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The HSE notes that &#8220;best thing you can do for your health is not to smoke or vape&#8221; and <a href=\"https:\/\/www2.hse.ie\/living-well\/quit-smoking\/vaping\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">offers free support and advice to those wishing to quit<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Main image: A man holding disposable vapes. Picture by: Ian Davidson \/ Alamy Stock Photo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People who throw old vapes away in the bin at home risk starting a fire, Waste Electrical and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-457269","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\/457269","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=457269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}