• Swindon & Wiltshire News
• Tuesday December 10 2024
• Author Name: Peter Davison

Stop throwing e-cigarettes in bin, Grundon begs vapers

Bristol waste management and recycling specialist Grundon has warned over the dangers of disposing of lithium batteries, particularly in disposal vapes.

Staff at the company, which provides waste management services around Bristol and Gloucestershire, have managed dozens of cases of incorrect disposal at its sites and on vehicles this year, including several fires.

Toni Robinson, newly-appointed as risk and sustainability director at Grundon, has urged people to properly recycle Christmas items and disposal vapes as the festive season approaches.

“Batteries become essential during the festive season,” she said. “No electronic gift or light-up tree topper is complete without them.

“Last year, six billion batteries were thrown away, including over 1.1 billion electricals containing hidden lithium-ion batteries.

“Notably, vaping has become increasingly popular across the UK, with an estimated 3.6 million Brits now using vapes. Of these, 20 per cent opt for disposable vapes, which, like many festive decorations, rely on lithium batteries and contain various materials that pose recycling challenges.

“The seasonal surge in battery usage can have serious consequences if they’re incorrectly disposed of in general waste or mixed recycling. So far in 2024, our Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) recorded over 50 incidents caused by improper disposal of lithium batteries.

“These batteries can be crushed during processing, and some batteries, like lithium-ion, have the potential to explode or ignite, posing a severe risk to waste facility workers.

“While our facilities are equipped with fire detection and suppression systems, when our vehicles are out collecting waste any fires on board pose significant threats to our employees and the public.”

Grundon operates out of bases in St Philip’s in Bristol and Bishop’s Cleeve near Cheltenham.

Toni urged people in both localities to consider proper management of lithium battery disposal, with advice for individuals and businesses.

“In an ideal world, everyone would be separating them, which then allows them to be handled in a safe manner,” she said.

“Unfortunately, too many people don’t appreciate the need to do this and often it’s not easy to do, as the battery can be integrated into the design of the product. For example, vapes with internal batteries are encased within the device and cannot be easily removed or replaced.

“When purchasing these items, people should think about the design of the product and whether it has been created for the long term or as a disposable item. Often these disposable items have batteries that can’t be replaced, so they’ll end up being thrown away.

“As a society, we need to think more sustainably and try to buy goods that last longer and have batteries that can be changed. This way, used batteries can be easily recycled.

“For businesses, we’d urge them to ensure any batteries are separated from waste streams so they can be sent for recycling – Grundon can help you with this by providing separate containers.

“This not only ensures that the batteries don’t cause any harm, but also means that valuable materials such as lithium, cobalt and manganese can be recovered. If batteries are sent for recycling, then up to 95 per cent can be recovered, which makes perfect sense.”

Toni also welcomed the announcement from the government that disposable vapes will be banned from June 2025.

“This is hopefully the start of legislation being put in place to help manage the situation,” she said.

“We need to hope that the Extended Producer Responsibility measures will ensure the true cost of putting these products onto the market and recycling them are covered.”

Toni became Grundon’s first female director when she was appointed to her new role in August. She holds a BSc (Hons) Rural Environmental Science, a Diploma in Management Studies, NVQ Diploma and NEBOSH Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety and three separate Certificates of Technical Competence at NVQ Level 4.