Elfbar vape ads banned over ‘misleading’ environmental claims

Elfbar adverts displaying the recycling benefits of vapes have been labelled “misleading” by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The watchdog banned the posters after it found they gave an “inaccurate impression” about the environmental benefits of the products as well as their limited options for recycling.

The posters, some of which were seen displayed on buses and digital billboards, say “recycling for a greener future” along with messages about “GreenAwareness” and the recycling symbol.

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However, 10 complaints were made to the ASA, including some from campaign groups Adfree Cities and tobacco company Imperial Tobacco, who said that single-use vapes were not widely recyclable.

Elfbar told the ASA over 70 per cent of people threw away their single-use vapes as they did not know they were recyclable. They said that the aim of the ad was to encourage consumers to engage with recycling. They denied that the ads made any claims about the environmental impact or benefits of their products.

At the time the ads were visible, 70 UK vape shops had dedicated Elfbar recycling bins, the firm added.

The collection process was run in partnership with a lithium-ion battery and vape recycling company that delivered the products to an appropriately certified recycling organisation in the UK, which disassembled them for the raw materials to be recycled and reused.

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Elfbar said raising consumer awareness about recycling is not a legal obligation, but the company had chosen to invest in it.

However, the ASA concluded that the adverts gave the impression that Elfbar products were “widely recyclable” which they found to be “inaccurate” due to the limited options for recycling through designated Elfbar bins only.

The watchdog said it understood that there were only limited recycling options for single-use vapes, some of which may not be easy for consumers to access.

The watchdog said: “We acknowledged Elfbar’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.

“However, because consumers would understand from the ads that they would be able to recycle Elfbar’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.”

The ASA also said it had not seen evidence that Elfbar’s recyclable vapes had less environmental impact than other vape products on the market, and concluded that the claim “for a greener future” was likely to mislead consumers.

It said: “We considered that the inaccurate impression that the products were fully recyclable combined with the claim ‘for a greener future’ exaggerated the environmental benefit of the products and was therefore likely to mislead consumers.”

It ruled that the ads must not appear again, adding: “We told Elfbar to ensure their future ads made the basis of environmental claims clear, and did not mislead as to the environmental impact or benefit of their products.”

An ELFBAR spokesperson commented: “We respect the decision from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and have taken steps to ensure stricter self-regulation in our advertisements and marketing.

“We are disappointed by any confusion this advertisement may have caused. Furthermore, we regret it has distracted from the progress of our GreenAwareness recycling project – a genuine and important effort to make it easier for adults to dispose of single-use vapes responsibly.

“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.”