Single-use vapes ban finally arrives after years of campaigning

The sale of single-use vapes will be banned in Scotland from 1 June after years of campaigning by environmental and health organisations and campaigners. 

Keep Scotland Beautiful, the Marine Conservation Society and ASH Scotland, alongside environmental scientist and campaigner Laura Young, first liaised with Scottish Ministers to call for a ban on the sale of single-use vapes in 2022 after highlighting how vapes undermine the principles of a circular economy, cause harm to Scotland’s environment and damage people’s health. 

Last year, it was estimated that almost 5 million single-use vapes were either littered or thrown away in general waste every week in the UK. That's the equivalent of eight being thrown away per second. 

There was an exponential increase in children’s use of e-cigarettes in Scotland, driven by the popularity of disposable vapes, between 2018 and 2022. 

Data we collected highlighted that single-use vapes were the fastest growing litter type in 2024/25, and with half of people in Scotland saying sightings of the products have become more common in the past 12 months, we know that a ban will help reverse this trend.  

Source to Sea litter surveys carried out by Marine Conservation Society volunteers in streets, parks and beaches revealed an increase in prevalence of vapes from being recorded on 46% of surveys in Scotland in 2023 to almost all – 85% - of surveys carried out in 2024. 

Barry Fisher, our Chief Executive, said: “We first became aware of the impact single-use vapes were having on our environment back in 2022 when members of the public and our volunteers were noticing them more often and asked what could be done. 

“I’m proud of the effort we have made, alongside our partners, to see this product banned in Scotland – it shows what true collaboration can achieve. 

“Our surveys and supporters have made it clear that this product was becoming more and more common, spoiling our environment and causing danger to wildlife.  

“We are dealing with a litter emergency and the last thing we need is single-use products coming to market that can end up discarded harming our environment. This ban will help remove the fastest growing litter item from our streets, parks and beaches and is a welcome step in the right direction, but everyone must dispose of their waste in the correct way.” 

Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland, said: “We celebrate the ban of cheap recreational disposable e-cigarettes, which are the starter vaping product for most youngsters who vape, as a vital first step towards halting the alarming upsurge of children vaping in Scotland during the last few years. 

“Although we warmly welcome these regulations coming into effect, government must take further, stronger actions to restrict the advertising and promotion of all e-cigarettes as well as banning vape flavours, colours, descriptors and branding on device designs and packaging to reduce the attractiveness of the products to children. 

“The tobacco and nicotine industries must be halted in their attempts to attract children to use their addictive and health harming products, generating huge profits at a considerable cost to the health of our young people now and future generations.”

Catherine Gemmell, Policy and Advocacy Manager at the Marine Conservation Society, said “The ban on single-use vapes is a fantastic win for our volunteers and Youth Ocean Network members across the country who have been working tirelessly to raise awareness of the issue of littered vapes. 

“Our volunteers found vapes on 85% of our Source to Sea litter surveys in 2024. Littered vapes can leak harmful chemicals and microplastics into the environment which can find their way into our seas and pose a real risk to marine life.  

“This is a great step in removing single-use products from the market. We know bans and charges like this work, having seen a decrease in things like single-use plastic bags in our litter surveys. Like so many areas of our society, we must move away from other single-use products, including plastic cigarette filters, towards a circular economy - one in which refilling and reusing is the norm, rather than throwing away and polluting our environment.” 

Laura Young, environmental scientist and campaigner, said: “This ban is a landmark moment in the fight against wasteful, polluting products that never should have become mainstream in the first place. Single-use vapes are a symptom of our throwaway, convenience-driven culture, producing devices which are harmful to the environment and hazardous to our health.  

“I’m proud to have played a part in campaigning for this change, but we must now look beyond vapes and tackle the wider issue of disposable electronics and the continual evolution of the tobacco industry’s tactics to hook the next generation. We must shift towards a circular economy where we design for reuse, repair and refill, and not for the bin. Scotland, and the UK have shown leadership through this ban. Now it’s time for industries to step up and follow through.”