How to Recycle and Dispose of a Vape Kit

Discover how to clean and prepare your vape kit for disposal, ensuring safe handling of batteries and e-liquids.

Vape kits get a lot of bad representation in the mainstream media for being one of the main causes of litter currently plaguing the UK. We have to object. It is not the humble vape kit or disposable vape which deserves the negativity. Rather, it is the people who drop them that deserve the wrath.

Why? Because vape kits are largely recyclable – even the disposable ones. They can be taken back to any responsible vape shop where they will go to a specialist facility which handles vape recycling. In some cases, you can even put parts of your vape into your recycling bin. When the glass of your tank breaks, for example, this can be dropped into the glass bin at your nearest facility.

This article discusses the environmental impacts vapes are having in the UK and how you can best go about counteracting these. In times of environmental panic it is far better to be part of the solution than to be part of the problem. As such, we will discuss the proper recycling methods for vape devices.

Environmental Impact of Vape Kit Disposal

Although vaping as a whole cane be environmentally less harmful than smoking, disposable vapes are causing an impact on the environment here in the UK. According to Greenpeace, around 22 football pitches full of vapes are tossed in the trash each year. While we prefer to measure things in actual numbers, the true figure goes well beyond 5 million disposable vapes discarded each week here in Britain.

The UK government cite both the environmental impact of toxic and hazardous e-juices (the toxin is nicotine) plus the ‘visual pollution’ these devices make as cause for concern.

When we claim that vaping can be less environmentally harmful than smoking, we say so with the knowledge that cigarette ends have remained the biggest cause of plastic pollution in the world for decades on end. If you own a reusable vape device and recycle the old parts and empty vape juice bottles, on the other hand, then you should minimise your environmental impact.

How to Prepare and Clean Your Vape Kit for Disposal & Recycle

When you decide to upgrade your device then you can safely recycle your old one. If you have a disposable vape device, the best way to recycle them is to use them until either the battery or the liquid runs out. Next, take them to the nearest vape shop and dispose of them in the recycling bin there. This recycling bin is specifically for vape devices. You should not toss disposable kits in the recycling bin inside your house just in case.

If you have a reusable vape device, pod kit, or vape mod which you wish to recycle, then you can recycle parts of them at home. Though you should take the battery to your nearest battery recycling facility. You can find these in supermarkets.

To prepare and clean your vape kit for disposal and recycle, you need to take it apart. Keep the battery separate and dry and take it to a battery recycling centre or supermarket. You can also take these to our Milton Keynes’ vape shops.

Remove the tank from your vape device when it is empty of liquid and use a piece of absorbent tissue paper to remove the last of the liquid. Next, wash both the mouthpiece and the tank in hot, soapy water. Once washed, these can go in the glass recycling bin.

You can find further guidance on cleaning your vape kit in our previous blog post.

What Can Be Recycled in a Vape Kit?

You cannot recycle every part of your vape kit. You must dispose of the coil in a regular bin. Since this has been saturated with the vape liquid, if your coil comes apart from your tank then you will have to place it in a regular bin.

Again, your battery should go either to a dedicated battery recycling centre, to a special battery collection point in your local supermarket, or to a vape shop.

When it comes to disposing of disposable vape kits, you are best to hand these into the shop. Do not put them into a regular recycling bin or standard bin. This is because there are horror stories of batteries which are not quite empty yet overheating on the bin trucks and causing fires.

You should not need to recycle your vape mods or refillable vape kits. You can re-sell these, trading them in for upgrades. You can browse our selection of vape kit mods here if you are in the market for a bigger, better, more powerful vape kit.

As for vape kit tanks, they are made almost entirely out of glass. This means they can be cleaned and popped in the glass recycling without any trouble. Your mouthpiece – that is the top part of the vape device – might not be made from glass. It could be plastic or rubber. Either way, it can be safely recycled as long as you clean it as described above.

Proper Disposal of Vape Kit Battery

There are many reasons why proper disposal of your vape kit battery is essential. First and foremost, proper and effective disposal of a vape kit battery insures the safety of everyone likely to come into contact with it.

The safety concern regards the vape device being placed inside a trash receptacle where another weight is placed atop it. This can force pressure down onto the button in push-to-activate vape devices. With the button pushed in and no relief, the battery will heat the coil. If the device does not have an in-built safety shut off point, then it will continue to heat until it causes a fire.

When recycling vape kit batteries or even disposable vapes, make sure that the battery is empty first. This will prevent any accidental button pushing or fires.

Other ways in which you can avoid causing an accident when disposing of the battery for your vape device is to track down your nearest recycling centre and take your vape devices there. This includes disposables. You can also dispose of vapes in vape shops and take batteries to battery collection points.

How to Dispose Expired or Unused E-Liquid

Vape juices can go off. Once they are past their sell-by date, the materials used to make the e-liquids start to break down. Although not necessarily harmful to you, this is not how the product was intended to be used.

Vaping old vape juices, those which have been open for too long, and e-liquids which are out of date, will lead to a poor vaping experience. Flavours break down over time, leaving you with bland, watery, or otherwise differently textured vape juice. At best, they will be bland. At worst, they present a fire hazard due to that inconsistent texture.

There is also the risk of e-liquid leaking into the water table and poisoning it over time. To prevent this, we must treat e-juice like we treat fats and oils. Soak them up in a paper towel before cleaning the containers with hot, soapy water, ready to recycle.

You should dispose of full bottles of vape juice by returning them to the nearest vape shop. You cannot recycle the juice. It must go in the bin and not down the sink. Remember too that you can recycle vape juice bottles if they are the right type of plastic.

How to Reuse Vape Kit Parts

You can take your vape kit apart and reuse or recycle those parts – but not all of them.

If you have a vape mod, vape kit, or pod kit (not a disposable device) then taking the pieces apart is the first step in reusing vape kit parts. The battery may be fine in your existing vape device, but the tank could be leaking. You can buy replacement glass if you need to, recycling the old glass.

On the other hand, say you are tired of your old device and want something more powerful. A more powerful battery pack would give you the extra oomph that you are looking for. In this case, you will want to replace the old battery part of your vape device. This is where the mod is. To replace it, order a new one or browse the products in our online vape shop. Upgrade the battery and then hand the old battery pack into the nearest vape shop.

If the vape kit battery, glass, and mouthpiece are all in need of an upgrade, then you can trade the whole device in. Some vape shops will buy vape devices secondhand. Secondhand vape devices may work out cheaper for new users. They are also a norm when it comes to buying and selling vape mods.

Where Should You Go To Recycle Your Vape Kit?

You should either take your vape kit to a proper recycling centre or to a vape shop, where it can be recycled.

If you have a vape kit with a refillable tank system, you can remove the glass and mouthpiece and recycle them in your glass bin, at home, safely. You should not dispose of your vape kit battery in this way.

Take your vape kit battery either to a designated battery collection point near you or to your nearest vape shop for recycling. You can take it to a recycling facility in your area, but you must make sure that they accept vape kits before you go. They may not have the facilities to recycle them there and then.

Remember that you should clean your vape kit parts before you recycle or reuse them.

Conclusion: Vape Kits, Bottles, and Parts Can Be Recycled

There are several parts to a vape kit which can be recycled. This includes the tank, the mouthpiece, and the battery – although the latter must be taken to a specialist facility.

You can take your vapes to a vape shop or to a recycling plant to recycle them. You can also trade in parts of expensive vape mods, pods, and kits, for resale or reuse. Replacing a mouthpiece makes a vape as good as new, although buying secondhand vapes only gives you access to a limited range of products.

With vaping becoming a problem on an environmental scale, we each have a part to play in keeping that problem to a minimum. Recycling and reusing vape devices must become the new normal if we are to succeed.