Disposable vapes ban - an opportunity to protect the British vaping industry?

Josh Douglas, founder and managing director, Dispergo Vaping Ltd

Should the government decide to go ahead and ban disposable vapes, we hope that this will lead to a better overall regulation of the UK market with more joined up thinking about the direction of the industry as a whole. Up until recently, the MHRA has been making it more difficult for UK-based manufacturers to produce compliant products. In one respect this eliminated a proportion of the cowboy element to vaping manufacturers (which we fully support).

Disposable vapes are cheap and accessible to teenagers through retailers such as corner shops and supermarkets who display them within easy reach without any real understanding of what it is they are selling. The popularity of disposable vapes has primarily been built on their convenience and cost. The concern around disposables is their accessibility by teenagers who can afford £5-£6 for a single use vape.

The UK vape industry understands the technology and the psychology behind vaping. The ultimate aim is to introduce vaping as an alternative to smoking tobacco. The NHS itself has stated that vaping is 95% better than smoking. Over time vaping shops help their clients to reduce nicotine dependency by reducing the amount of nicotine in their vapes.

With supermarkets and convenience markets only really stocking the 20mg/ml nicotine (highest legal strength) people aren't able to cut down as easily. If you go to a vape shop they usually hold 10mg, 5mg and 0mg so people can keep reducing the nicotine strength.

What is more, disposables are just that - disposable. They cannot be recycled. They are single use plastics with Lithium batteries that go straight into landfill.

Protecting the British vapes market

As far as Dispergo is concerned, there are two significant benefits as and when the government gets its act together and imposes a total disposable vapes ban.

-          It protects the homegrown British vapes market which has some excellent manufacturers (such as Dispergo) which takes as much pride and care over its products as craft beer brewers. When Dispergo first started the vaping industry was a real cottage industry. It was a gentle, tight knit community where everyone knew each other and was pretty much self-regulating. Increased regulations made the market go more commercial, so while many of the original manufacturers started to struggle they also had to compete against the cheap imported disposables.

-          It will protect the environment. According to a Guardian newspaper article, five million single use vapes are being thrown away in the UK every week. Straight into landfill. Apparently the lithium used in this amount of disposables is enough to create 5000 electric car batteries!

If and when a disposable vape ban does take place, Dispergo will welcome it. We are well placed to continue providing delicious quality vape pod kits that are renewable, reusable and much kinder to the environment and to our discerning customer base.

Disposable vapes have never been part of our core business and we have stocked them primarily to satisfy a specific demand from some of our customer base. Dispergo is dedicated to professional vaping - collaborating with vapers who love the ritual and artisanal creativity behind premium vaping products.

About Dispergo

Vape manufacturer, Jack Rabbit, was first established in 2016, evolving out of a kitchen table business where founder and managing director, Josh Douglas, created what were to become award-winning flavours. The success of Jack Rabbit led to setting up Dispergo, the wholesale side of the business selling to retailers, as well as running its own retail outlet.

In the seven years the company has been operating, sales have trebled or quadrupled year on year. More recently, the company has seen growth in the export market, selling into Australia, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Chile, among others. Its sales are split 75% domestic market and 25% export.

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Josh Douglas is available for comments about the disposable vape ban. To request an interview or for further information please contact:

Kate Ashley-Norman

i3MEDIA Ltd

T: 01733 890836

E: kate@i3media.net