UK: Glastonbury Festival bans disposable e-cigarettes

Glastonbury Festival has decided to ban attendees from bringing in disposable e-cigarette devices, due to their significant environmental impact.

The UK's biggest music festival, which runs from 21-25 June 2023, has announced that it will ban puffs at the event. The ban joins knives, mirrors and single-use wipes in a list of banned items posted on the festival's website. . The organizers' motivations for refusing disposable e-cigarettes are linked to the "environmental pollution of these products and their potentially dangerous nature in waste treatment centers." This announcement follows several other decisions by the festival's managers aimed at combating pollution caused by single-use plastics, such as the ban on the sale of plastic bottles in 2019.[2].

Components of electronic cigarettes, a problem in waste management

The United Kingdom faces a significant waste management problem related to the consumption of disposable e-cigarettesOf the 2.6 million electronic cigarettes sold each week in the country, more than half are thrown on the ground or among household waste, endangering waste collection and treatment infrastructure.

These products contain batteries, plastics, electronic components and toxic liquids. Due to the lack of infrastructure to recycle them properly, it is now the waste treatment and recycling centres that are facing the environmental consequences of their explosion in consumption. More than 700 fires have been caused by different types of batteries, affecting garbage trucks and recycling centres[3]Some centers are using artificial intelligence to detect puffs and their lithium batteries, and are installing thermal cameras and automatic foam jets to prevent such fire risks.

Disposable e-cigarettes to be banned in several countries

This environmental and health problem caused by disposable cigarettes is also present in many other countries. Several countries are considering or have already decided to ban the marketing of these products, both because of the environmental consequences they generate but also to combat the growing vaping among children and adolescents, the main marketing targets of manufacturers. Paediatricians from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) have called on the Scottish government to ban disposable e-cigarettes immediately, while one in ten teenagers consumes it regularly. In France, MP Francesca Pasquini has tabled a bill May 25, 2023 to ban the sale of puffs, a measure supported by the Minister of Health.

New Zealand has for its part voted to ban disposable vaping devices effective March 1^er August 2023.

Keywords: Glastonbury, UK, e-cigarettes, disposable, puffs, environment, pollution, waste.

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[1] Packing list, Glastoonbury Festival, accessed 12 June 2023

[2] Glastonbury festival bans plastic bottles, The Guardian February 27, 2019, accessed June 12, 2023

[3] Single-use vapes sparking surge in fires at UK waste plants, The Guardian, May 13, 2023, accessed June 12, 2023