The Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (England) Direction 2025 (accessible version)
Updated 2 June 2025
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2025
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Environmental Protection Act 1990
The Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (England) Direction 2025
The Secretary of State, in exercise of powers conferred on him by regulation 11 of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (England) Regulations 2024, gives the following Direction to local authorities –
1. Citation, commencement and application
(1) This Direction may be cited as the Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (England) Direction 2024.
(2) This Direction comes into force on 2nd June 2025.
(3) This Direction applies to England only.
2. Interpretation
In this Direction–
“appeal” means an appeal under regulation 30 of the Regulations;
“authorised treatment facility” has the meaning given in regulation 2 of the WEEE Regulations;
“exporter” has the meaning given in regulation 2 of the WEEE Regulations;
“the Regulations” means the Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (England) Regulations 2024;
“the WEEE Regulations” means the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013[1];
“waste management organisation” means an authorised treatment facility, or an exporter.
3. Single-use vapes to be treated as waste
Local authorities must treat as waste single-use vapes which meet the description specified in regulation 11(2) of the Regulations.
4. Disposal of single-use vapes
Local authorities must take the following steps in relation to the single-use vapes referred to in paragraph 3:
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to ensure their disposal using the best disposal route, by ensuring they are sent to a waste management organisation for disposal, and
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to ensure that the waste management organisation tasked with the disposal uses the best available treatment recovery and recycling techniques, in accordance with regulation 31 of the WEEE Regulations.
Signed by:
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for Nature), Mary Creagh CBE MP
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Date: 2 June 2025
[1] S.I. 2013/3113. There are amendments that are not relevant to this Direction.