E-cigarettes are an environmental triple threat

Vapes are rising in popularity and as sales soar, they present a triple threat to the environment: plastic waste, electronic waste and hazardous waste.

The harm cigarette waste does to the environment has been understood for some time. Surveys of littering behaviour have found that 65% of smokers discard cigarette butts improperly - resulting in 4.5 trillion cigarettes being discarded in the environment every year.


The filters in most cigarettes are made of cellulose acetate - a type of plastic – so discarded butts are a significant source of microplastics in the environment. Plus some of the chemicals found in cigarettes, such as benzene, nicotine and lead, can leach from them and contaminate the surrounding soil or water.

 

Around the world, rates of cigarette smoking are declining. Clean Up Australia’s 2021 Rubbish Report, noted that the number of cigarette butts collected is gradually decreasing year on year, down 7.7% from 2019.. This would be good news if it weren’t for the rise in popularity of e-cigarettes, which appear to be even more damaging to the environment than cigarette butts.

 

E-cigarettes, or vapes, are battery-operated devices that vaporise a liquid solution, often nicotine, which is inhaled by the user. E-cigarettes were invented by Chinese pharmacist, Hon Lik, in 2003. The BBC reports that in 2019, more than 40 million people were using his invention, and predicts that that number will reach almost 55 million by 2021. While this is fewer than the one billion people who smoke traditional cigarettes, the rate of growth is alarmingly rapid. 

 

When they first hit the market, e-cigarettes were considered the "safe" alternative to tobacco and we are only just beginning to understand their health and environmental impacts.  The Australian Medical Association and Cancer Council Australia, among other key Australian health bodies, have cast doubt on claims that e-cigarettes are the healthy alternative to cigarettes, citing increasing evidence of health harms. Despite this, the use of e-cigarettes in Australia continues to rise, particularly among teenagers. Between 2016 and 2019, the proportion of people who had ever used e-cigarettes rose from 9% to 11%, an alarming trend that’s moving in the wrong direction..  

 

In order to understand the environmental impact of e-cigarette waste, it is important to know what they are made of. There are two parts to an e-cigarette - the smoking device (the vaporiser or vape) which is used over and over, and the disposable cartridges or pods containing a liquid which are used once then thrown away. Both parts are problematic when discarded as waste. 

 

The pods are made of plastic. They can’t be recycled because they may contain liquid nicotine, which is a hazardous substance. When pods are discarded in the environment, the contents can leak out, potentially causing contamination. And the plastic they are made of will take hundreds of years to biodegrade. During this time the plastic will breakdown into ever-smaller pieces, finally ending up as micro- or nano-plastics which can be digested by animals, potentially resulting in suffocation, starvation and death.

 

The smoking device, or vape is more akin to a mobile phone than a traditional cigarette. It is a complex electronic device containing computer circuits, hard plastics, heavy metals like lead or mercury, and lithium-ion batteries. The complexity of the device as well as the fact that lithium-ion batteries are classified as hazardous waste, makes them very difficult to recycle and there are currently few opportunities to do so in Australia. As a result, many vapes are disposed of in landfill or simply discarded in the environment where they can leach metals and nicotine into the surroundings as well as present a fire risk.

 

There is currently no federal or state legislation governing end-of-life disposal for e-cigarettes. They are simultaneously classified as e-waste because of their electronic components, and as hazardous waste due to the liquid nicotine residue, making recycling impractical.

 

The problem of e-cigarette waste is emblematic of a larger problem – companies are free to introduce new products into the market with no regard for the safe disposal of their component parts when their useful life comes to an end. As a result, the responsibility for, and the cost of, the disposal, clean up and recycling falls on tax payers when it is left to local councils to deal with the clean up and disposal. If we are to protect the environment and keep it free of toxic substances, hazardous waste and mountains of plastic fragments, we need to close the loop on e-cigarettes and ensure manufacturers take responsibility for the entire lifecycle of their products, including recycling and end-of-life disposal. 


 by Janet Aitchison




The Minister for the Environment takes feedback for a product stewardship priority list - public consultation for 2022-2023 has concluded but learn more here.

Search for other blog topics:

Share by: