Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential cost to the public purse of recycling disposable vapes.

Defra has recently commissioned some research to better understand the market for and environmental impacts of disposable vapes and associated cost impacts. That research will be published in due course. Currently there is no cost to the public purse for recycling disposable vapes that are deposited at household waste recycling centres (HWRCs). The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Regulations require producers of electrical and electronic equipment (including vapes) to finance the collection and proper treatment of those products when they become waste at HWRCs.