Disposable vapes are flooding the environment with plastic waste and creating an eyesore

Chris Moody, who regularly cleans sections of the River Bride in Cork, said in one incident he found 50 single-use vape products that were discarded into the river

Disposable vapes: The brightly colored e-cigarettes are flooding the environment with plastic waste, creating an eyesore in parks and across city centres

Three fires broke out at the Grundon waste disposal plant near London’s Heathrow Airport in the past six months. In each case, the chief suspects were disposable vaping devices containing lithium batteries.

Owen George, who leads recycling for Grundon, said the volume of discarded vapes has soared over the past two years and poses a growing risk because the small batteries “can catch fire or pollute the other recycling".