Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Loading“I’m one of those big litter picker-uppers myself, and I can tell you, it used to be masks during COVID, but it is vapes now,” Port Phillip Mayor Louise Crawford said. “It’s the new problem child in the waste or litter world.”“We were noticing more waste fires in our [rubbish] trucks, and it was very hard to determine exactly what caused the fire. But we thought if we took [vapes] out of the trucks, that would also stop waste going to landfill, but also [enable us] to determine if that’s part of what’s causing the fires,” Crawford said. “The good news is we haven’t had as many fires since we started doing the recycling.”Crawford said fires in Port Phillip’s rubbish trucks had been turning into a weekly occurrence, but there had not been any “hot loads” since December.From February to December last year, the council recycled 270 kilograms of vapes – about 4500 used devices.“If we’re having those numbers, all the other councils are probably having similar, if not higher, numbers,” Crawford said. “We’re going to continue until April, and we are working with other councils to consider a similar service.”The City of Casey in Melbourne’s south-east established the state’s first vape disposal service, in November 2023, and has collected 254 kilograms of vapes.Disposable vapes seized by Australian Border Force in 2023.Credit: Rhett WymanMayor Stefan Koomen said it was a step in the right direction in combating vape waste and meant more than 4200 vapes had been disposed of correctly, “vapes that could have been littering our parks and streets or potentially causing dangerous rubbish truck fires due to incorrect disposal”.However, many council areas do not have options for proper disposal of the devices.Clean Up Australia chair Pip Kiernan said users were confused about what to do with vapes because there was not a consistent approach to the collection and disposal of them.“The thing about vapes is we call it a triple threat to the environment, because it is plastic waste, it’s hazardous waste, and it’s e-waste,” she said. “It doesn’t belong in the garbage bin because it does contain a battery, and those can cause fires and issues in both the truck and the waste facility if it ends up there, but it absolutely doesn’t belong in the environment.”Port Phillip Mayor Louise Crawford with a vape collection bin.Credit: Simon SchluterKiernan said Clean Up Australia’s figures showed the container deposit scheme had greatly reduced the number of cans and bottles turning up as litter and a similar scheme was needed for vapes.“It’s a good example where we need a good producer-responsibility scheme where the entity importing or manufacturing that product is responsible for its collection and safe disposal at the end of its life,” she said. “These items are very problematic when they end up in the environment.”
