It is 2pm and Ana, 47, has just started the afternoon shift at the Suez recycling plant near Birmingham city centre, standing beneath a sign reading \u201cNon-ferrous sorting station\u201d with a bucket of vapes in front of her. Sorting and dismantling them is part of her job as a site operative.<\/p>\n
Recycling them is not simple. Each bucket holds between 40 and 50 devices, and over the course of a shift, she gets through about half a bucket. Using a hammer, she has to smash each vape open, pry out the batteries and separate each component into a different container.<\/p>\n
Single-use vapes were banned in June last year, but more than 6m vapes<\/a> and vape pods are still being discarded every week in the UK. Waste management companies say the sheer volume is straining recycling systems, while hidden lithium-ion batteries inside the devices are causing fires.<\/p>\n As Ana works, a burst of sugary scent fills the air; she doesn\u2019t worry about the vapes exploding, she says, it\u2019s never happened to her yet. But while vapes may not be hazardous at this stage of the sorting, they can become dangerous when crushed or damaged, such as during waste collection and storage.<\/p>\n Suez says vapes are suspected as the cause of more than 80% of the reported fires at its sites last year. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In 2025, there were 670 fires at Suez\u2019s UK sites. Of those, 368 were confirmed to be caused by batteries or vapes, with a further 176 suspected to be linked. Those working at the sites say people simply do not understand that vapes cannot be thrown away, or think \u2013 wrongly \u2013 that they can be recycled alongside household products. Instead, they need to be taken to dedicated electrical recycling points.<\/p>\n \u201cVapes were suspected as the cause of over 80% of the reported fires across our sites last year, with the numbers and trend continuing so far in 2026,\u201d says Dr Adam Read, the chief sustainability and external affairs officer at Suez.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is despite the ban on disposable vapes coming into effect halfway through 2025. With more than 6m vapes still thrown away every week, it is clear that the perception on these items remains that they are a throwaway item. The problem is that people often don\u2019t realise the danger that batteries cause when not disposed of correctly, and think they are doing the right thing by putting them in with their recycling.\u201d<\/p>\n Suez recycling operative Ana gets to work taking the batteries out of a disposable vape. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Read adds: \u201cAcross the sector, we estimate around \u00a31bn a year is being spent, or needs to be spent, dealing with this issue \u2026 Waste<\/a> sites are now seen by insurers as some of the highest-risk facilities because fire is so prevalent.\u201d<\/p>\n He recalls a major blaze at a site in Aberdeen four years ago that destroyed the facility. \u201cIt was \u00a320m of investment gone \u2026 These are serious risks,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The root cause, Read says, is simple: frequency. \u201cOther battery-powered items, like electric toothbrushes, don\u2019t appear as often in the waste stream because people keep them for years. But vapes are used and thrown away constantly. It\u2019s the sheer volume.\u201d<\/p>\n Every fire investigation now starts the same way. \u201cWe\u2019re almost always looking for lithium-ion batteries as the starting point, and then asking: was it a vape?\u201d<\/p>\n While the disposable vape ban aimed to tackle the problem, industry figures say it has simply shifted it.<\/p>\n On the floor of the Birmingham recycling site, since operations began at 6am, about 150 vapes have already been found in just six hours. Staff say the devices have changed: instead of the once-ubiquitous disposable brands such as Elfbar, larger rechargeable vapes, such as Hayati, are now more common in the waste stream.<\/p>\n An Elfbar spokesperson said: \u201cDepleted devices and refills should always be disposed of responsibly. Vapers are encouraged to use takeback services provided by retailers selling vapes, which have a statutory duty to accept them. Thousands of recycling points can also be found across the UK on Material Focus\u2019s Recycle Your Electricals <\/a>website.\u201d<\/p>\n Hayati did not respond to attempts to contact it for a comment.<\/p>\n As these devices are often not much more expensive that disposables, critics argue there is little incentive for users to change their behaviour.<\/p>\n Steve Daniels, the operations manager at Suez, says: \u201cWe are seeing a change in the size of the vapes being thrown away, because they\u2019re the ones that require charging. We used to see smaller vapes, like the 600-puff ones, but now, as you\u2019ll see on the production floor, it\u2019s the larger, rechargeable types \u2013 and they have bigger batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n When recycling material enters the plant, it is first sorted by size. Larger non-conforming items (such as nitrous oxide canisters) are often removed. However, larger vape devices, which are becoming more common, are increasingly slipping through this stage and are instead identified later during aluminium separation, where they often appear among crushed cans.<\/p>\n Staff at Suez say vape users often do not realise the danger that the device\u2019s batteries pose when they are not disposed of correctly. Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Read says producers should bear more responsibility for the products they make. \u201cWe\u2019ve argued that if a vape costs \u00a310, there should be a \u00a35 handling cost built in. That reflects the real cost of dealing with it safely,\u201d he says. \u201cThat financial driver could change behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n