Ban disposable vapes
We supported environmental activist Laura Young's campaign against disposable vapes to highlight their impacts and drive action to limit pollution across the country.
Campaign update: 1st June 2025
Today the ban on disposable vapes comes into effect across the UK! This is a fantastic win for our volunteers and Youth Ocean Network members who have been working tirelessly to raise awareness of the issue of littered vapes.
Our volunteers found vapes on 68% of our Source to Sea Litter surveys in 2024. Littered vapes can leak harmful chemicals and microplastics into the environment which can find their way into our seas and pose a real risk to marine life.
This is a great step in removing single-use products from the market. We know bans and charges like this work, having seen a decrease in things like single-use carrier bags in our litter surveys. Like so many areas of our society, we must move away from other single-use products, including plastic cigarette filters, towards a circular economy - one in which refilling and reusing is the norm, rather than throwing away and polluting our environment.
Campaign update: 4th November 2024
The Scottish Government will now move the ban back to June to align with the timescales announced by the Welsh and UK Governments and provide consistency across the four nations.
Campaign update: 24th October 2024
The UK Government has confirmed that they will stick to the previous government's pledge to ban disposable vapes in England and Wales, due to come into effect from 1st June 2025.
The Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive had already announced that they will ban the sale and supply of single use vapes in Northern Ireland by 1st April 2025.
We look forward to each country sticking to these deadlines, and will continue to monitor and advocate for a reduction in single-use plastics.
Campaign update: 29th January 2024
Following Laura's tireless campaigning, which galvanised support across the UK, the UK Government has announced that disposable vapes will be banned across the UK!
This is great news for our blue spaces and marine life, which are at risk from pollutants, such as disposable vapes, that are littered in the environment and end up in our seas.
We are proud to have supported Laura's campaign to Ban Disposable Vapes and we will be ensuring that UK governments deliver on this.
In the meantime, we're celebrating this win for our ocean.
Your disposable vape sightings
Laura began her #BanDisposableVapes campaign after coming across countless disposable vapes on a walk in her local area.
Laura asked her community to share pictures of the vapes they came across on social media to highlight the extent of this new pollution problem. We supported Laura's call to action, with many of you taking part and sharing your sightings across social media, spotting disposable vapes on streets, beaches, in parks and even rivers.
