Vapes may be responsible for fires at waste sorting centres

There has been around €100 million worth of damage from fires in waste sorting centres and bin lorries, caused by vapes, as reported by The Irish Times.

​Two severely damaged centres are currently unusable due to the extent of the damage, with €56.6 million worth of damage incurred from 2023 to 2025 alone.

​The Irish Waste Management Association conducted a survey, to which a majority of its members responded.

​It was found in this survey that, as well as other issues caused by vapes, around €1.7 million worth of damage was caused to vehicles, including bin lorries.

​Speaking to the Irish Times, Association secretary Conor Walsh said, “It should make a move from disposable vapes to reusable vapes, but that's not happening.

​“They’re going from single-use disposable vapes to multi-use disposable vapes. They’re being thrown into bins fully charged, so instead of having 30 million depleted vapes going into bins, we’ll have five to six million fully charged vapes in the bins.”

​The government is aiming to solve vape issues across the country, with the Public Health Bill on single-use vapes due later this year.

​Although this aims to solve issues from a commercial aspect and protecting children from the sale of vapes, the environmental aspect remains important.

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