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Manufacturers are paying close attention to recyclability as they bring new products to market – especially in the vape sector – where environmental impact is increasingly in the spotlight.
Senior management within supermarkets and other large retailers in the FMCG sector are acutely aware of climate concerns.
Consumers are also demonstrating they care by considering sustainability in their purchasing decisions.
A recent study by McKinsey and NielsenIQ, for example, examined the sales growth of ‘eco-friendly’ products in the US that and found that 60% of respondents said they would pay more for products with sustainable packaging.
As a company we went to great lengths to ensure that we built a high-rate of recyclability in our SLIX products.
We designed SLIX with recyclability in mind, using high quality recyclable materials and a simple construction that allows for highly efficient dismantling. This was a determining factor in Morrisons deciding to stock our product as it fits well with their sustainability principles.
Yet, the availability of highly recyclable products and increased consumer awareness, are not translating into action when it comes to recycling.
One possible reason for this is that current UK regulations are very strict when to comes to including terms such as ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘environmentally sustainable’ on product packaging, which makes it difficult to deliver messages around recycling and the recyclability of products.
Aron Byrne-Carter, managing director of nicotine trend consultancy NGP Trends, makes a good point when he says that because single-use devices are so easy to buy and use that consumers will expect the recycling process to be simple and convenient too.
It is also confusing for consumers when single-use products, in particular, are depicted in the mainstream media as being particularly unfriendly for the environment.
What is increasingly clear is that many consumers do not know how to dispose of them correctly.
A nationwide public information campaign explaining how to responsibly dispose of used products, backed up by accessible disposal points where vapes are typically used and thrown away could make great inroads in addressing the environmental impact of these products.
ANDS recently commissioned Waste Experts, a company specialising in vape recycling and disposal, to examine the recyclability of an existing, widely available single-use plastic and aluminium vape and the ANDS new cardboard-based SLIX product.
Key results across the two vape products were that between:
- 97.6%-99.29% of product is either recyclable or recoverable
- 74.8%-80% of the product is recyclable and
- only 0.7-1.15% of the total product is sent to landfill
I think the public would be astonished to learn that single-use devices are actually so recyclable and recoverable and that only a tiny percentage of them need ever be sent to landfill.
Ultimately the responsible disposal of single-use vapes needs an end-to-end approach that starts at the design and manufacturing stage and works through the supply chain to include distributors, retailers and consumers so that recycling becomes the preferred option of disposal.
Much still needs to be done to ensure that consumers are aware that these products should be recycled and that appropriate collection systems are in place to facilitate recycling participation, but I am confident we are heading in the right direction and we all have a a crucial role to play.
Marina Murphy is senior director of scientific and medical affairs at ANDS, a trademark owner and distributor of alternative nicotine delivery systems.
