England is making headlines after announcing its ban on single-use vapes. According to the Guardian, the country will stop the sale of disposable vapes starting next summer.
In an effort to discourage vaping and reduce its environmental damage, the English government has made it illegal to sell disposable vapes starting in June 2025. The Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs announced businesses have until June 1 to sell remaining stock and prepare for the upcoming vape ban.
Disposable vapes are made of non-biodegradable materials, including plastic, metal, and electronic components. As a result, they take hundreds of years to eventually break down into the ground, polluting communities and leaching toxic chemicals into the environment.
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Vape littering in England has increased, with almost 5 million single-use vapes either littered or thrown away in general waste every week in the U.K., per the Guardian. That number is almost four times as much as the previous year.
On top of being wasteful, disposable vapes are detrimental to human health. Vaping has been known to cause serious health complications including respiratory problems and cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"That is why we are banning single-use vapes as we end this nation's throwaway culture," Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh told the Guardian. "This is the first step on the road to a circular economy, where we use resources for longer, reduce waste, accelerate the path to net zero, and create thousands of jobs across the country."
Along with curbing disposable vape pollution, the bill also hopes to prevent children from vaping. By imposing restrictions on the sale and marketing of vapes to children, the legislation is an attempt to reduce nicotine addictions in young people.
"It's deeply worrying that a quarter of 11- to 15-year-olds used a vape last year," Health Minister Andrew Gwynne told the Guardian. "Banning disposable vapes will not only protect the environment, but importantly reduce the appeal of vapes to children and keep them out of the hands of vulnerable young people."
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