Illegal sale of disposable vapes exposed just days after government ban

Daily Mirror

13 hours ago

In a bid to safeguard kids and the environment, selling disposable yapes was outlawed… but a Mirror reporter posing as customer was illegally sold nine at a London shop
Disposable vapes are being illegally flogged just days after their sale was banned, a Mirror probe reveals.
In a bid to safeguard kids and the environment, selling the devices was outlawed. But our investigation secretly filmed a grinning shopkeeper letting an undercover reporter buy three popular brands' single-use varieties. He even offered us a cut-price deal if we purchased remaining stock – smiling while boasting of the 'good discount'. Campaigning not-for-profit Material Focus responded to our findings, warning: 'Retailers have to make a choice - they either pay the expensive costs of having them recycled or break the law and sell them.'
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A ban on single-use vapes sales came into force on June 1, with rule-breakers facing a £200 penalty – and re-offenders subject to jail or an unlimited fine. It came after almost five million of the devices have been found to be chucked away weekly – and concern over youngsters vaping. The government said the crackdown was 'putting an end to their alarming rise in school playgrounds and the avalanche of rubbish flooding the nation's streets'. But just days later, our reporter visited Station Place Food and Wine, next to Finsbury Park station, in north London, and was sold £29.97 of the devices.
On Friday, we purchased three strawberry ice cream disposable SKE crystal bar vapes, advertised as having 600-plus puffs. We also got three mango ELFBAR 600 disposable pod vapes and three Lost Mary disposable pod BM600 vapes in watermelon lemon flavour. After making the purchase, our reporter enquired about getting more vapes. A man, thought to be a customer, even helped interpret negotiations, explaining: 'He's saying, if you come for, as a whole, the stock that I have remaining, then I might even be able to give you some discount.' Asked how much, the shopkeeper looked up at the vapes above the checkout and said: 'This normally, three for £9.99… all this [you] buy, three for £6.99.' He smiled at the other customer, adding: 'Yeah, good discount.'
Scott Butler, Material Focus Executive Director, said: 'We aren't surprised that… disposable vapes are still being illegally sold. This feels almost inevitable. Retailers have to make a choice - they either pay the expensive costs of having them recycled or break the law and sell them. However, our bigger concern is that the new products that are coming onto the market, such as the new rechargeable ones, look identical to the old disposable ones, and they are similarly priced.
'Until retailers comply with the legal requirement to provide recycling points in their stores, and producers pay for their recycling, the vapocalypse will continue. To find your nearest recycling point, use the Recycle Your Electricals postcode locator which has nearly 30,000 places where electricals including vapes can be recycled.' The number of single-use vapes thrown away was recorded at nearly five million a week, according to research released by Material Focus in September 2023. The figure represented nearly four times the number since research was carried out the year before.
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When a man whose number the Station Place Food and Wine's shopkeeper gave for his boss was contacted for comment, he messaged back on Friday saying: 'This is wrong number'. In another message, he added: 'I don't know what do [sic] you talking about'. Meanwhile, we returned to the shop on Friday to find disposable vapes still on display.
Asked for comment on illegally selling disposable vapes to us, the shopkeeper said: 'My friend… I'm working.' He added: 'You call the boss, you call the shop number.' Pointed out that the law had changed on Sunday and asked if he was aware, the shopkeeper replied: 'I'm working.' Pressed on whether he had any response to illegally selling us disposable vapes, he laughed, adding: 'I'm just working. OK, [I]... understand this is problem, this vape buy, this customer…'
Separately, single-use vapes worth between an estimated £7,000 and £10,000 were seized this week, Lancashire Police said. Elsewhere, Rochdale Borough Council said over 600 disposable vapes were seized. Writing on Facebook on Tuesday, the council said: 'Yesterday our trading standards team were out visiting local shops to check that businesses were complying with the new disposable vape ban that came into force on Sunday.
'Over 600 disposable vapes were seized from shops across the borough as part of their efforts, with the team joined by police officers and members of our Sunrise team on some of the visits, following concerns raised about vapes being supplied to children. In response, shop owners were firmly reminded that nicotine is extremely addictive and that this can also lead to children being put at risk of exploitation.'
Meanwhile, a probe by Better Retailing uncovered almost half of shops it visited were still flogging disposable vapes despite the ban. The publication found 24 of 50 shops it visited were still selling the devices. Of the two dozen shops, 19 were said to be displaying them openly on shelves and gantries – with one explicitly revealing they were willingly breaking the law.