Fire and ‘sheer volume’: how Britain’s 6m-vape problem is putting recycling under strain

Despite the ban on disposables, waste professionals say the mountain of discarded devices is a £1bn-a-year issue 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 “Non-ferrous sorting station” with a bucket of vapes in front of her. Sorting and dismantling them is part of her job as a site operative. Recycling them is not simple. Each bucket holds between 40 and 50 devices, and over the course of a