The UK-wide ban on disposable e-cigarettes is falling brief as near-identical new reusable vapes promote for almost the identical worth and refill pods are briefly provide, undermining a authorities drive to chop waste and defend youngsters’s well being.
Single-use vapes have been unlawful since June 1, with penalties for companies that promote or provide merchandise that can not be refilled with vape liquid or lack rechargeable batteries starting from an preliminary wonderful of £200 to 2 years in jail.
Setting out the ban final 12 months, ministers stated the transfer would finish a “throwaway tradition” on the planet’s second-largest vaping market, whose use of brightly colored packaging and sugary flavours appeals to youngsters and younger individuals.
However a Monetary Occasions evaluation of fifty comfort retailers and vape shops in London and the south east of England discovered that shops inventory new reusable units at a considerably greater fee than refills, suggesting customers are shopping for the units repeatedly as single-use merchandise.
For the reason that laws took impact, standard single-use manufacturers resembling Elf Bar, Misplaced Mary and Geek Bar have all created near-identical reusable variations of their merchandise that promote for roughly the identical worth, sometimes £5.99.
Two in 5 retailers visited by the FT didn’t promote the cartridge refills required for reusable e-cigarettes, and almost all retailers promoting refills had considerably extra inventory of reusable vapes than refill pods.
Nearly a 3rd of them nonetheless bought disposable vapes, regardless of the change within the regulation, with many prominently displayed.
Harry Tattan-Birch, a senior analysis fellow at College School London, stated: “Retailers are stocking the rechargeable model of the disposable vapes with none substitute pods . . . Folks simply proceed to deal with them like disposables.”
Dan Marchant, chief govt of the UK Vaping Business Affiliation, stated the dearth of a “mandate that for those who promote the machine, it’s essential to additionally promote the refills” was a “flaw” within the ban.
Provide chain points have hindered retailers’ entry to new refill pod kits nationwide, based on the commerce physique. Marchant, who can be joint proprietor and managing director of Vape Membership, the UK’s largest on-line vape retailer, pointed to acute shortages throughout comfort shops, which he stated had been “blasé” about the necessity to order in additional merchandise.
Vape Membership and Evapo, one other specialist retailer, stated they’d registered an increase in customers reusing vapes since June 1, due to ample inventory of latest units and refill pod kits.
However non-specialist excessive avenue retailers, which aren’t required to inventory refill pods, nonetheless promote reusable units for single use. Most store house owners who spoke to the FT cited an absence of provide from wholesalers, with many saying it was “inconceivable” to acquire the brand new cartridges.
“You’ll be able to simply use [the reusable vape], then throw it away, such as you would have finished earlier than,” stated one shopkeeper who had not stocked any refills as a result of reusable vapes include prefilled pods.
Ministers have beforehand acknowledged that vaping might be useful for adults who’re making an attempt to scale back or give up smoking, however they’ve additionally voiced concern over the impression of vape flavours and packaging on youngsters.
Analysis means that vaping is much less dangerous than smoking, though nicotine utilization in younger individuals has been related to temper and a focus issues.
However Sandy Chadha, chief govt of Supreme, an e-cigarette producer that has registered an increase in refill gross sales, stated: “If a child needs to vape, what’s stopping them from shopping for is just not whether or not it’s a reusable or a disposable vape.”
Materials Focus, a recycling non-profit, estimates that 8mn vapes, dense with flamable metals resembling lithium, went to UK landfills each week final 12 months.
Clive Black, an analyst at Shore Capital, warned that “from an environmental standpoint this ban . . . may very well be a catastrophe” as a result of individuals had been persevering with to purchase reusable units as if they had been disposable.
Elf Bar and Misplaced Mary refill pods are usually priced at £5.99 for a pack of two, making it cheaper for vapers to reuse their machine.
However for customers, the disposable nature of those merchandise stays largely unchanged. “It’s arduous to search out refill packs . . . I’m nonetheless shopping for ‘reusable vapes’ like they’re single use,” stated Adam Bellegha, a 33-year-old dwelling in London.
Hazel Cheeseman, chief govt of marketing campaign group Motion on Smoking and Well being, stated the ban on single-use vapes was “not ample to attain the federal government’s targets”, and known as on producers to raised “telegraph” that reusable units didn’t must be discarded.
Vaping prevalence within the UK had levelled off earlier than the regulation change got here into drive, with some massive tobacco teams resembling British American Tobacco publicly reporting a decline in gross sales of e-cigarettes.
A spokesperson for Misplaced Mary and Elf Bar stated “acquainted design and comparable pricing are key to . . . encouraging transition to compliant alternate options”, and “packaging clearly states that the units are rechargeable”.
The manufacturers’ reusable pod kits had been “extensively obtainable” and accounted for two-thirds of UK gross sales, the spokesperson added.
The Division for Setting, Meals and Rural Affairs stated single-use vapes “get children hooked on nicotine and blight our excessive streets”, including that it fell to “Buying and selling Requirements and native authorities to implement the ban”.
Kate Pike, lead officer for tobacco and vaping at Buying and selling Requirements, stated that whereas “the overwhelming majority of reliable retailers usually are not promoting single-use vapes . . . we realise it is rather complicated for the general public as most of the new substitute rechargeable and refillable merchandise look very just like the single-use vapes they’ve changed”.
“The place we discover single use vapes being bought or equipped we’re seizing them and taking acceptable motion towards the vendor,” Pike added.
Geek Bar and the Affiliation of Comfort Shops didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.