Exploding vape batteries 'putting lives at risk'

The incorrect disposal of vapes, in general and recycling waste, is an issue that is costing the waste industry millions of pounds and threatening livelihoods and lives, a company says.

One recycling facility in Aldridge said it was retrieving thousands of wrongly-disposed vapes each month.

Regional manager of the Biffa-run site, Luke Walter, said a "devastating" fire caused by a lithium battery in 2025 had shut the site for six months for it to be rebuilt.

"There is a misconception that they're harmless and people think they're doing the right thing putting them in the recycling," he said, "but they're causing significant problems for the industry and putting people's lives at risk".

The waste management firm said they believed the January 2025 fire was sparked by a lithium battery from a vape incorrectly placed in a blue recycling bag.

"Unfortunately it took hold quite quickly and developed fast," Walter explained.

"It took out the electrical circuits on the plant which resulted in us having six months downtime to rebuild the facility," he said.

The site was evacuated quickly and staff redeployed, but others in the industry haven't been so lucky, he added.

"Our competitors have also lost facilities and some of them have never re-opened and that puts people's jobs at risk straight away."

Walter said that the cost to dispose of vapes was "significant" and required a specialist recycler, adding it was a "common misconception" to put vapes in the recycling and general waste.

Instead they should be taken back to the retailer where the vapes were brought from, he said.

The company had seen a "spike" in people disposing of vapes after a ban was brought in in June last year as people had stockpiled them in preparation for the ban.

Walter pleaded for people to have a "second think" before disposing of lithium batteries, contained in electric toothbrushes, phones and power banks.

Lithium batteries have caused fires across the West Midlands with bin lorries being destroyed in Warwickshire and the Malvern Hills.

Firefighters in Shropshire appealed for people to separate household waste properly after a battery pack started a fire at a recycling centre last year.

In Wolverhampton, 80 firefighters tackled a fire at a lithium battery recycling centre in 2024 which closed roads and led to transport delays.

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