Some 30% of Irish adults don't know how to properly dispose of vapes, leading to a risk of “fires” where they are discarded.
Irish Business Against Litter reported vapes were found as a litter type on beaches for the first time.
If damaged, or overheated, the batteries can catch fire and become a health and safety risk.
The European Recycling Platform are calling on the public to keep Irish beaches and waterways free of waste.
Minister of State for Circular Economy Ossian Smyth said there’s a “huge amount” of disposable vapes being used in Ireland.
“There was a time a couple of years ago when you bought a vape and you charged and refilled it – but then someone invented the disposable vape,” he said.
He said "tens of millions” of the nicotine products have ended up scattered around the Irish countryside.
“They can start fires as well because of the lithium-ion battery,” he said.
“Irish Businesses Against Litter will tell you firsthand they're finding more and more of these vapes.”
He said people can dispose of vapes the same way they get rid of batteries – since “that’s what a vape mostly is”.
“What you're supposed to do is bring it to your local shop where you bought it and there should be a blue box on the counter that says battery recycle,” he said.
“Bring them back to the blue box and they’ll all get taken away to a battery recycling place and looked after.”
Disposable vapes in Ireland
In the first four months of 2023 alone, 26.3 million disposable vaping products were sold – a dramatic increase from the 5.6 million vapes sold throughout 2022.
There have been calls to ban disposable the product to protect the environment as they become increasingly “problematic”.
Irish Business Against Litter spokesperson Conor Horgan previously said year on year, the amount of vape litter on streets has “doubled”.
“If you talk to people involved in Tidy Towns, they’ll tell you they have become a real bugbear in that community,” he said.
The HSE advises that the “best thing you can do for your health is not to smoke or vape” but notes vaping “may be less harmful” than tobacco.
