It’s time to tackle the recycling industry’s most burning issue

As the number of fires caused by vapes and lithium-ion batteries continues to rise, metals recycling specialist Enicor is calling for a more consistent and enforceable approach to disposal. In this article Tom Bird, executive chairman at Enicor, examines what avenues there are to tackle the rising incidents of fires.

One year ago (September 2025) the Environment Services Association (ESA) issued a policy briefing describing the number of fires associated with the improper disposal of batteries as an “epidemic”.

Across the UK, more than six billion batteries are discarded each year, but many of these end up hidden within other waste where they can ignite or even explode. It is estimated that battery fires currently cost the UK a billion pounds each year, damaging much needed recycling infrastructure and delivery vehicles and threatening the lives of frontline workers in the sector.

With the number of fires from vapes and other lithium-ion fuelled disposables rising exponentially, you would assume there is a genuine urgency to addressing a problem plaguing the UK’s waste management infrastructure, but instead progress is frustratingly slow. This needs to change.

Issue stoked by inconsistency

Currently, the picture is complicated by multiple stakeholders, an inconsistent approach across local authorities, a lack of consumer understanding around disposal and a regulatory framework that is seemingly hard to enforce.

Ambitions to reduce fires at waste and recycling plants are framed within a mix of regulations and permitting requirements at site level, industry guidance, battery policies, enforcement measures and operational standards with little transparency around the impact, if any, that these interventions are making.

For example, the ESA is seeking universal collections of batteries and small electricals at the kerbside rather than the patchwork of local authority collection services that are currently available. However, a lack of consistency in approaches is confusing for consumers, which hampers information campaigns. Even with the ban on disposable vapes, some don’t even realise that their vape can be recharged so they get discarded.

In March, Material Focus reported that the number of vapes thrown away or recycled remains high with over 6.3 million vapes and pods being discarded every week, despite the single use vape sales ban that came into force in the UK on the 1st June 2025.

In addition to risks to human and environmental health, this shortfall represents a missed circular economy opportunity. Vapes contain valuable materials including lithium and copper, with an estimated 80% of the materials inside a vape recoverable. In fact, the lithium in the vapes thrown away each year could instead power almost 5,000 electric vehicles . It is even estimated that UK households throw away or hold onto electricals containing at least £1 billion of materials , so capturing more of these materials would keep critical resources in circulation and reduce long-term demand for virgin materials.

An alternative approach

There is strong industry consensus that change is urgently needed. The most pragmatic route would be to collect batteries and small electrical items containing hidden batteries from households via dedicated external containers on refuse vehicles, with services funded as part of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) arrangements.

The UK electricals and portable batteries - collections review published in January by Materials Focus and Defra found that councils who offer kerbside services collect on average 15-22% more small electricals than those that don’t. For batteries, kerbside collection services had a stronger effect, increasing collections by about 49% more than those without the service.

While retailers that sell vapes are mandated to collect them for recycling as an alternative to kerbside collections, the reality is that there is still a significant shortfall in vapes and small electricals being disposed of safely.

Unsurprisingly, the insurance sector is becoming increasingly vocal on the need for tighter controls on lithium-ion batteries and vape disposal given the rising claims for fire losses, with the recycling industry facing rising insurance costs and increasingly costly investment in fire prevention technologies. Like recycling firms and local authorities, insurers see the most effective intervention is not better firefighting technology but preventing batteries reaching waste facilities altogether.

The government, vape and battery manufacturers, local authorities and the recycling industry all have much to gain from working together to prevent batteries and vapes entering residual waste, as well as improve the consistency and availability of collection infrastructure to drive up consumer participation. With no sign of the number of fires in the industry abating, stakeholders need to realise these goals as quickly as possible.

Those in the recycling sector, government, local authorities, fire services and the insurance industry agree on what needs to be done, yet fires are still happening on an alarming scale. Policymakers should consider mandating separate kerbside collections for batteries and small electricals across all local authority areas, with limited exemptions only where this is demonstrably impractical. The 49% uplift in battery collections shows the difference this could make, so a consistent nationwide service would remove the current postcode lottery and keep far more batteries out of residual waste.

We must utilise existing infrastructure to ensure the level of convenience that will achieve buy in from consumers, ensure compliance and accountability from producers and retailers and bring much-needed clarity to solving a major issue. Without that clarity, improper disposal of batteries and vapes will continue to seriously damage the UK’s recycling infrastructure and prevent valuable resources from being recovered and retained within the value chain.