Why 600kg of discarded vapes are causing worry across the Costa del Sol

Discarded vapes are putting bin lorries and recycling workers at risk of fire, and officials say the problem is only getting bigger.

A fast-growing pile of hazardous waste

Waste company Urbaser, which runs the Costa del Sol’s main waste treatment plant, has collected roughly 600 kilograms of vapes and e-cigarettes since launching a dedicated recovery scheme in March, that’s an average of around 100 kilograms every month. Officials say the figure shows how quickly vaping habits are changing what turns up in household rubbish.

Felix Romero, head of the local authority overseeing waste management for the western Costa del Sol, describes these devices as a new category of waste that keeps expanding. Gadgets that look harmless on the surface, he explains, are built from materials that make them genuinely dangerous once binned carelessly.

Lithium cells are the main worry. Dropping a vape into general waste or an ordinary recycling container risks triggering fires during collection and processing, since damaged batteries can overheat rapidly. Similar cells have caused serious blazes elsewhere, including incidents at recycling plants and involving e-bike batteries that firefighters have struggled to extinguish once overheating begins.

How to safely dispose

Officials are urging residents never to drop vapes into general waste, yellow bins or grey bins. Disposable devices belong at a local recycling centre or a shop offering take-back points for electrical and electronic waste. Many tobacconists, specialist retailers and manufacturers already run their own collection schemes and carry a legal duty to ensure proper recovery. For rechargeable models, separating the battery, cartridge and other parts before disposal makes recycling safer, with batteries needing to go specifically into containers designed for lithium waste.

Even after collection, vapes require careful manual handling rather than automated sorting, given their mix of plastics, metals and battery cells. Romero says staff are putting in considerable effort to fold these devices into existing waste systems, aiming to stop pollutants leaking into soil and water while salvaging materials such as aluminium and cobalt for reuse.

To read more about the dangers of vaping you can see more here in EWN