It is well worth listening to the varied concerns from Greenpeace about how society is polluting the environment with ever new gadgets. Vapes were hailed by smokers as the best way to transition from smoking to stopping it or to avoid even starting. Manufacturers immediately saw their chance: the possibility of making money by developing single use vapes with different tastes when puffing and of course making them look attractive to children with the varied colour scheme.
Greenpeace is mostly concerned with the disposable single use vapes: "Two vapes are thrown away every second in the UK, 1.3 million disposable vapes each week, enough waste to fill 22 football pitches. It needs to be tackled. 110,000 people so far have signed the petition to ban single use vapes."
Forty countries have already banned or restricted them. According to Greenpeace: "3/4 of Brits think they should be banned. Single disposable vapes have now become an unwanted symbol of today's throwaway culture."
A government ban is urgently needed of this wasteful product. Why call for a ban? "For one thing it does not make sense to keep flooding the market with single disposable vapes (600 puffs) when we have already reusable alternatives," Greenpeace states. In addition: "They are made from plastic, planet-wrecking oil."
Vapes are electronic devices so they can't be recycled with normal household waste and have even caused fires in bin lorries and at waste management centres.
It might be worth asking what other piece of technology is designed to be thrown away after one use.
Greenpeace, London N1 2PN - www.greenpeace.org.uk
