The Daily Record is inviting everyone in Scotland worried about disposable e-cigs litter to become a “vape crusader” today.
Today marks World Environment Day – and we’ll be taking to the streets to find out just how bad the issue of single-vape pollution is in our neighbourhoods.
We encourage our readers to do the same and go out to inspect their local areas – whether it’s for an hour or just a few minutes, whatever you can manage.
If you have appropriate equipment such as gloves or litter pickers, you could even join the Record in cleaning at least some of these polluting gadgets off our streets today.
Or you could just count them and see how many you find. And we encourage you to send your findings and any photos to the Daily Record by email, or by tagging us on social media with the hashtag #BanDisposableVapes.
Green MSP Gillian Mackay, who will join the Record today on our vapes mission, said: “Disposable vapes are clogging up our streets, parks, rivers and beaches at an alarming rate.
“138 million are thrown away in the UK every year, and it’s only getting worse as that number grows day by day. It’s time we did something about it.
“I want us to use World Environment Day to uncover the extent of the problem, and with the support of Daily Record readers we can make a real impact.
“By joining our litter pick, you can take part in citizen science by sharing photos of all the disposable vapes you find and posting to social media using the hashtag #BanDisposableVapes.
“You can also email me the number of disposable vapes you found at [email protected].
“This will show how bad the problem is in your area and give us the chance to do something about it.”
Largely thanks to efforts of campaigners like the original vape crusader Laura Young, this year Holyrood ministers launched an urgent review of disposable vapes which could include ban. That’s set to report back later this month.
Ms Young, 26, said: “This World Environment Day let’s go out and help raise awareness for the issue of disposable vapes.
“It’s great to see this campaign continuing to put pressure on our government to make the right decision in the face of a huge issue.”
We launched our Bin The Vapes campaign to outlaw throwaway single-use vapes in January as we uncovered the shocking scale of litter in our public spaces.
A staggering 1.3million disposable e-cigs are tossed away in the UK every single week after the products exploded in popularity in recent years.
That’s enough to cover 22 football pitches. The electronic gadgets also waste vital materials like lithium and copper on an astonishing scale, while also being hazardous to the environment.
Enough lithium is thrown away in vapes in a year to power batteries for some 2500 electric cars.
It’s also feared disposable devices – different to rechargeable, refillable types used by many as a tool to quit smoking – are being targeted at youngsters with their bright colours and sweet flavours and hooking the next generation on nicotine.
We told last week of hopes UN talks on plastic pollution will yield a global agreement to crack down on disposable vapes.
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