Disposable vapes: Dundee City Council will write to Scottish Government calling for ban

Dundee City Council has become the first local authority in Scotland to back a campaign to ban disposable vapes.

Its chief executive has been asked to write to the Scottish Government calling for immediate action over the sale of single-use vapes.

A motion put forward by Liberal Democrats on the council received cross-party support.

The campaign was launched by local environmental campaigner Laura Young, who spoke at the policy and recourses committee meeting.

She told STV News: “We need retailers, manufactures and brands who are selling disposable vapes to be compliant with the many different trading standards put on them.

“The first thing we need is young people to not get access to these. We need them to be compliant with having schemes to take them back, collection points to get them properly recycled and, of course, be compliant with all trading standards.

“It should be happening now already, but that’s something the council can definitely crack down on in the meantime, while we hopefully wait on this ban on disposable devices.”

Disposable vapes are ready to use immediately and last for around 600 puffs.

Research by the environmental group Material Focus found 1.3 million disposable vapes are thrown away in the UK every week.

Most are then discarded and, when they are not recycled, the components of single-use devices end up in Scotland’s environment.

The materials increase plastic pollution and toxic chemical leakage, while microplastics have also been found in the stomachs of various animals, including seafood for human consumption.

Liberal Democrat councillor Fraser Macpherson said residents in his West ward had raised concerns about the environmental impact.

He added: “We’re delighted at the support from other parties. It was unanimously agreed we should ask the Scottish Government to ban them.

“The Scottish Government has a review on them which Zero Waste Scotland is undertaking on the effect of disposable vapes and we are feeding into that now to say they should be banned in Scotland.”