VapeTech Partners with Recyclers Network
A circular-economy initiative to recover batteries, metals and plastics from end-of-life devices.
A disposable device contains more recoverable value than most people assume: a lithium cell, a copper or aluminium heating assembly, a steel or aluminium enclosure, and engineering plastics that are entirely reusable in non-contact applications.
The problem has never been the value. It has been the collection logistics — getting a small, widely distributed, battery-containing item back from consumers safely and legally.
That is the gap our new recyclers network partnership is designed to close.
Why we partnered rather than built
We could have built collection infrastructure ourselves in one or two markets. But a fragmented, market-by-market approach produces exactly the outcome nobody wants: a different scheme in every country, inconsistent consumer messaging, and reporting that cannot be aggregated for the brand partners who need it.
A network of established regional recyclers gives us three things immediately:
- Licensed battery handling and transport under existing dangerous-goods frameworks.
- Established consumer collection points, largely at retail and municipal sites that already exist.
- Consistent mass-balance reporting, so recovery figures can be audited and reported per market.
What gets recovered, and what doesn't
It is worth being precise about this, because vague circular-economy claims are increasingly scrutinised by regulators and retail buyers alike.
Recovered today:
- Lithium cells — the highest-value and highest-priority stream, handled under UN 38.3 transport rules.
- Aluminium and copper from enclosures and heating assemblies.
- Steel from structural components.
- Engineering plastics — ground and reused in non-contact structural parts, not in anything that contacts e-liquid or vapour.
Not currently recovered economically:
- Residual e-liquid, which is treated as controlled waste rather than recovered.
- Mixed-material laminates used in some flexible packaging.
- Ceramic wicking structures, which are technically recoverable but currently cost more to separate than the material is worth.
We publish these exclusions deliberately. A take-back scheme that quietly ignores its least convenient streams is not a take-back scheme.
How partners participate
Brand and distribution partners can join the scheme in two ways:
- Scheme-marked packaging — adding the collection mark and instructions to your artwork, with the regulatory wording supplied per market.
- Producer registration support — we provide the recovery tonnage data needed for your own producer-responsibility reporting, in the format each national scheme requires.
There is a per-unit cost, and we are transparent about it. For most partners the calculation is straightforward: the cost per unit is far lower than the commercial risk of losing a listing with a retailer that has made take-back a supplier requirement.
Reporting and audit
Recovery volumes are tracked by mass balance at each regional processing facility and reported quarterly. Partners receive per-market figures suitable for ESG reporting, and the underlying processing records are available for audit.
This is the part we expect to matter most over the next two years. Retail buyer scorecards are moving from do you have a scheme to show me your recovery rate, and only auditable data answers the second question.
If you would like to add the collection mark to a programme, contact our sustainability team with your target markets and we will supply the artwork requirements.
More detail on our wider environmental commitments is on our R&D and quality page.