The Disposable Vape Ban – Time For Some PR?
They’re fruity and come in lots of funky colours, it’s almost impossible to go on a night out without seeing someone clutched onto one: we’re truly living in a vape nation.
However, these ‘fun-looking’ nicotine-packed bars do come at a cost.
Each week, Brits throw away 1.3 million disposable vapes and only around 30% of those go to a recycling centre. That means that over 900,000 vapes a week end up in landfill.
Why is this bad?
Vapes contain lithium-ion batteries which, if thrown away in regular bins, can cause fires in landfills, pose a significant risk to waste management workers and leak harmful chemicals into the environment.
Similarly, lithium is a depleting raw material and needs to be recycled so that it can make more products. The main takeaway though is that lithium is a key component in transitioning to reliable and sustainable energy sources. Lithium batteries are highly efficient at storing electricity generated from renewables like solar and wind power. This means that they are essential in providing reliable energy storage even when production fluctuates. In a nutshell, its ability to store lots of energy and long-life cycle makes it ideal for transitioning into green energy.
The Disposable Vape Ban
The government has now said that enough is enough when it comes to disposable vapes and has issued an official disposable vape ban that will come into effect on June 1.
What Does This Have To Do With PR?
When the ban comes into place there’s an absolute guarantee that a stream of news will be flowing around the subject. As PRs, it’s important to keep an eye on policy implementation and news-jacking opportunities that would be great for our clients to piggyback.
News-jacking is great for some earned coverage but in this case it’s not just about that, it’s about taking social responsibility and seizing the opportunity to take a stance on an important subject matter. For example, just last month, I had discussed Ben & Jerry’s brand activism and their series of CSR/PR stunts from their ‘Cows going underwater to save the Great Barrier Reef’ in 2014 to their ‘Make Some Motherchunkin’ Change’ campaign in 2024.
Before we dive into the ways your brand can leverage PR with the disposable vape ban, it’s important to note that CSR must align with your brand’s values or core mission. Jumping on trending issues without a clear connection to your brand can come off as inauthentic or government overreach. Likewise, the disposable vape ban, with many for and against it, will be a point of contention. Make sure to think about whether an anti-vape-related campaign would align with your customers and think about the risks involved with opting for a side.
The Brainstorm
By all means, these ideas are not perfect (and some brands may not perfectly align) but I thought a quick brainstorm might be fun!
Kick-it
According to Vape Superstore ‘Berry Sour’ is the most popular vape flavour. Let’s go back to Ben & Jerry’s (again). I’m envisioning them releasing an exclusive ‘Berry Sour for the Environment’ flavour in support of the disposable vape ban. The tagline: ‘Get Your Fruit Kick From Us Instead’ with messaging such as ‘do us a favour and recycle your vape’.
Swap it!
I’m picturing a vibrant graffiti-sprayed vape van that travels to universities across the UK. The van teaches the importance of recycling disposable vapes and swapping yours for a reusable one. For this imaginary campaign (with unlimited spend), I’m envisioning Greggs giving out free sausage rolls in return for disposable vapes.
The face of the campaign, I’m thinking GK Barry, influencer & I’m A Celebrity Queen of the Jungle, who has been very vocal about wanting to stop vaping.
GK Barry along with Greggs staff can hand out sausage rolls with napkins that say:
Disposable vapes cost you around £713 a year, that’s 570 sausage rolls!
Bums Not Lungs
Who Gives a Crap is a punchy and bold toilet paper brand that sells colorfully wrapped toilet paper that has the social mission of providing access to clean water and toilets for those in impoverished areas.
I know some friends that like to collect neon Elf Bars and have a stash of colours on the shelves in their room. So, I’m now picturing Who Give a Crap releasing neon-coloured toilet rolls to parody this trend following their usual cheeky messaging: ‘Bums not lungs’, ‘Collect Rolls not Vapes’ or ‘Neon, but make it ethical’.
Relax & Recharge
LUSH – they’re anti-waste and pro-environment so are a perfect match for an anti-disposable vape PR campaign.
Let’s go more visual for this campaign and have LUSH set up a huge bathtub full of discarded vapes. Next to it, a lush, foamy and colourful bath that presents the sustainable and relaxing alternative.
The messaging, ‘13 vapes are thrown away every second, this bath would be overflowing in just 60 seconds’.
Looking for your next PR opportunity? Click here find out more about what we do.
