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Credit: Jack Hodgkiss / AdFree Cities
Elfbar has been rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for making misleading environmental claims in a series of adverts for the e-cigarette brand this summer, after an investigation by watchdog found breaches of eight advertising codes relating to misleading advertising, qualification, environmental claims and substantiation.
The adverts, which appeared on buses and digital billboards in London in July and August, carried images of the Elfbar 600 V2 vape alongside the phrases ‘recycling for a greener future’ and ‘green awareness’.
However, in its ruling published today, the ASA upheld ten objections made by complainants including Adfree Cities and Imperial Tobacco which had argued the ads were “misleading” because they did not make clear there were only limited recycling options for Elf Bar’s single-use vapes. Moreover, the adverts were found to have made misleading claims about supposed environmental benefits that the products offered.
As a result, the ASA instructed Imiracle (HK) – trading as Elfbar – that the adverts “must not appear again in the forms complained of”.
In its submission to the ASA during the investigation, Elfbar had argued its statement in the adverts – ‘recycling for a greener future’ – had been intended as a means of generally encouraging the recycling of vapes, adding that its devices were capable of being recycled.
It also cited research carried out earlier this year by non-profit Material Focus which found that 70 per cent of vape users threw away their single-use devices as they did not realise it was possible to recycle them.
Consequently, Elfbar claimed the general intention of its adverts was to raise awareness that their vapes could be recycled and to encourage consumers to engage with recycling.
The ASA disagreed, however. “We acknowledged Elf Bar’s intention was for the ads to educate and encourage consumers to recycle, and that they would be undertaking initiatives that would increase consumers’ ability to do so,” today’s ruling states. “However, because consumers would understand from the ads that they would be able to recycle Elf Bar’s single-use vapes through a wide variety of routes including by easily accessible routes such as home recycling provisions, when that was not the case, we concluded the ads were misleading.”
According to the ruling, at the time the ads were published 70 UK vape shops had dedicated Elfbar recycling bins. Elfbar also said it was working directly with a number of retailers to deliver free in-store vape collection bins, and that it aims to establish a closed-loop recycling system by 2025. The firm’s website, meanwhile, states that it is working with Recover, a UK lithium battery recycling company, to “responsibly handle” devices collected via its GreenAwareness programme.
Elf Bar said it respected the decision from the ASA and had “taken steps to ensure stricter self-regulation in our advertisements and marketing”.
“We are disappointed by any confusion this advertisement may have caused,” a spokesperson said. “Furthermore, we regret it has distracted from the progress of our GreenAwareness recycling project. As part of the ongoing programme, we have made our product easier to collect and disassemble for recycling purposes and aim to establish a closed-loop system by 2025. We are committed to these measures and complying with the guidelines set forth by the ASA.”
Single-use e-cigarettes have come in for increasing scrutiny over their environmental impact, as they are made from plastic as well as containing rare-earth metals such as lithium in their batteries, yet the devices are notoriously difficult to recycle, with few councils offering home collection services for vapes. Vape sales have also been soaring in recent years, helping contribute to a growing mountain of single use plastic and lithium ion battery waste in the UK.
Every week an estimated 1.3 million disposable vapes collectively containing 10 tonnes of lithium are thrown away in the UK, according to waste charity WRAP, and these numbers are growing.
As recently as July, councils in England and Wales urged the government to outlaw the sale and manufacture of single use vapes by 2024 to prevent a flood of disposable e-cigarettes reaching the UK as other countries impose restrictions. The government is currently exploring bringing in a potential ban on single-use vapes next year.
The EU, meanwhile, has proposed banning disposable e-cigarettes from 2026, with governments in France and Ireland considering further action, and both Germany and Belgium already having imposed bans on the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes.
Responding to the ASA’s ruling against Elfbar today, James Ward – a campaigner at Adfree Cities – called for a “universal ban” on vape advertising to reduce the presence of what he described as “environmentally disastrous products”.
“Just as cigarettes scar the bodies of smokers, so has the rise in popularity of disposable vapes left a toxic legacy of plastic and harmful battery metals on our environment,” he said. “Advertising for nicotine-containing vapes is prohibited on TV, radio, in print and online. That it is permitted on outdoor advertising is a glaring loophole in the law and highlights how outdoor advertising sadly so often provides a willing platform for polluting companies.”
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