FEATURE
Government’s 25-Year environment plan is
at odds with TPD 10ml bottle regulations
Last month, Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled the
government’s 25-year environment plan, dubbed ‘the war
on plastic’. Plastic waste is, she said, “one of the great
environmental scourges of our time”.
She’s not wrong. UK supermarkets alone generate 1 million
tonnes of plastic each year. Globally, just 9% of plastic is
recycled, with 72% ending up in landfill or in the sea, having
a devasta ting impact on the ecosystem. Now the situation
looks set to get even worse.
Historically, the UK has relied upon China to process two-
thirds of our recyclable plastic waste – approximately 500,000
tonnes each year. But now, as part of President Xi Jinping’s
drive to clean up the environment and create a ‘beautiful
China’, the country has enforced all-out ban on the importation
of foreign plastic waste. UK councils may now have to resort to
incinerating huge quantities of plastic, resulting in the emission
of deadly pollutants including hydrogen chloride, dioxin and
fine particle matter.
On the face of it, vaping should be considerably kinder on the
environment than smoking. E-cigarettes are designed to be
reused and many of their components are recyclable. Plus,
they don’t contain any of the toxic butts that clog up drains and
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flow into the ocean. But thanks to the TPD, vapers get through
far more plastic e-liquid bottles than they need to.
The 10ml bottle rule is one of the most heavily-criticised
regulations imposed by the TPD. The Freedom Association’s
Freedom to Vape campaign broke the absurdity down into
numbers: A vaper using 5ml of e-liquid per day would get
through roughly 1,800ml over the course of a year. If they
could buy 100ml bottles, they’d use 18 a year. Instead, under
the TPD, they get through 180.
While DIY e-liquid makers can easily reuse plastic e-liquid
bottles, many more containers will find their way into recycling
plants and landfill. Only the most diligent vaper will arduously
clean used bottles and separate the recyclable and non-
recyclable components.
The bottles themselves aren’t the only problem. In order
to accommodate the health warnings required by the TPD,
many e-liquids now come in cardboard boxes along with
an information leaflet. These can easily be recycled but are
nonetheless a waste of resources.
If e-cigarettes are to appeal to smokers, they not only have
to adequately simulate the smoking experience but also be