Vapers are stockpiling supplies amid fears of 'daft' disposables ban - as users urged to explore 'better options'
25 May 2025, 10:00
Vapers have been stockpiling ahead of a looming ban on disposable vapes, but users have been urged to seek other smoking alternatives amid concerns of their damaging environmental impacts.
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Disposable vapes are set to be banned in the UK from 1 June. Only reusable devices will continue to be legally sold. That means they must be refillable, have a rechargeable battery and a replaceable coil.
Now, many Britons addicted to the smoking alternative have been stashing disposable supplies as the deadline approaches.
Cara Hallinan, 25, picked up the habit five years ago after kicking her 20 cigarettes-a-day addiction.
Now, she is loading up on supplies, already with a stash of 40 ready for use once the products are pulled from the shelves.
"I've been buying boxes of them from my local discount store. They're trying to get rid of them, so I've been getting ten vapes for £20," she told the BBC.
Another user, Baroness Claire Fox of Buckley, moved onto the disposable vapes after 40 years of chain smoking.
"They worked a treat and for the past 18 months I have been smoke-free," she told the BBC, adding that they have had a "miraculous impact on smoking levels".
Now, she is stocking up on "brightly-coloured vape boxes both at home and at work" amid fears of the looming ban.
Blasting the policy, she said: "Finally, we have a smoking cessation device that works and we ban it - it's counter- productive and daft."
But speaking to LBC, Scott Buttler, Executive Director at Material Focus, an electrical recycling group, says there are "better options".
"It's a product that's come out of nowhere, that seems to have taken over the world."
"We've got 8 million a week of them being binned and, littered, causing problems, environmental hazards, fire hazards."
He added that while disposable vapes are "convenient", users have been "sold a dream".
"We come at it from an environmental perspective.
"The single use vapes are full of valuable materials like lithium and copper that we need for a green tech future, a smart tech future. It's a waste of those sort of resources... It's been sold as disposable, it's been sold as throwaway
"It isn't throwaway. It isn't disposable. It's something more important."
An estimated 60,000 vape retailers across the country are reportedly understood to be finding workarounds to comply with new regulations.
They are also still selling vapes by the tens of millions.
However, a recent study highlighted there has been a "shift away" from disposable vapes since the ban was announced, with more people opting for refillable and reusable devices.
Academics from University College London (UCL) also suggest the rapid rise in e-cigarette use seen in Britain in recent years has "stalled".
They warned that "stricter policy options" being reviewed around vapes could stop smokers using the devices to quit cigarettes.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which is currently working its way through Parliament, also includes powers to potentially restrict the packaging, marketing and flavours of e-cigarettes.
For the study, funded by Cancer Research UK, researchers looked at the Smoking Toolkit Study, an ongoing survey of adults in England, Wales and Scotland.
The team analysed data collected between January 2022 and January 2024, which included responses from 88,611 people.
During the two-year period, vaping rates among those aged 16 and over increased from 8.9% to 13.5%.In January 2024, more than four in 10 (43.6%) mainly used disposables, but this had fallen to less than a third (29.4%) a year later.The decline was steeper among 16 to 24-year-olds, according to researchers.
Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, said: "Our results also suggest that the Government's ban on disposables, coming into force in June, may have limited impact on vaping rates in general, given that vapers are already moving away from disposable vapes.
"It seems likely that people using these products will move to reusable versions rather than stop vaping completely."
