Pay once to get your shop set up properly: takeback bins, the signage the regulations require, a simple logbook and a training session for your team. Then one flat all-in price per collection, only when a bin is full. No per-kilo meters. You only pay when something happens.
Registered for waste broker and dealer activity.
Carrier, hazardous waste consignment note and record-keeping all included. Never priced per kilo.
Vape takeback compliance run across the UK.
Returned vapes are lithium-bearing electrical waste. Stored loosely or binned with general waste, they create real fire, compliance and insurance exposure.
Returned vapes contain lithium cells that can short, swell or enter thermal runaway. Loose or mixed storage turns a stockroom into a fire risk.
Vapes are electrical waste (WEEE) and must not enter general or mixed recycling. Contaminated loads can be rejected and charged back.
No segregation, no consignment notes and no weight data means nothing to show an inspector. Undocumented disposal is the fastest way to fail.
Insurers increasingly ask how lithium waste is stored and removed. Improper storage can undermine cover after a fire or a claim.
Two containers that work together: a front-of-house tube for customer returns and a 30L UN-approved bin that the collection runs from. Both come with the one-off setup, and it is the arrangement insurers increasingly expect to see before they cover vape takeback.
Your customer-facing collection point. The clear tube shows the fill level at a glance, and staff decant it into the 30L bin for collection.
The collection unit. It accumulates returns from the tube, and once it fills we arrange the collection.
Both bins come as part of the one-off setup, so there is no rental and no recurring charge for the kit. Request your quote and we’ll spec the pair for your site, or ask about battery and mixed WEEE bins from the same range.
If you are on a legacy vape collection contract or a monthly waste subscription, there is a good chance you are overpaying, and the paperwork risk is still yours. Our answer is simple: set up once, then one flat price per collection, only when something actually happens.
Vape treatment is already producer-funded, so nobody should be paying treatment fees on standard takeback loads.
From this date vape producers must finance the real costs of collecting and treating waste vapes through their compliance schemes (SI 2025/910).
Collection prices are compressing fast as producer funding arrives. Shops on legacy per-visit contracts are often paying well over today’s market rate.
The default is simple: a one-off setup fee per store, then a flat all-in price per collection, both quoted for your store or estate on the setup call. No monthly fees. The plans below are Compliance Cover, an optional add-on for shops that want the ongoing admin fully taken off their hands: logbooks maintained, virtual staff training, signage kept current and all paperwork managed. Pay monthly or annually per site, and skip it entirely if you would rather run the file yourself.
For the shop that wants the compliance admin handled and left alone.
For shops preparing for retail licensing under the Tobacco and Vapes Act, where compliance evidence protects the right to trade.
Your first store pays the plan rate. Stores two to five are £25 each, six to fifteen are £15, sixteen to thirty are £10, and the whole account caps at £299 a month on Essentials (£349 on Licence-Ready). Billed annually by default.
One flat price per collection: carrier, consignment note and record-keeping all included.
Subscription waste providers get paid whether anything happens or not, and per-kilo providers earn more when more of your waste moves. We charge for events, not time: if your bin takes three months to fill, you pay nothing in between. Specialist work such as damaged or leaking devices is the one thing we quote per job, agreed before anything moves.
Put what you pay per collection today into the checker and see how your current contract compares with flat all-in collection pricing at today’s rates, before you ever speak to us.
Check My Collection CostsFrom the first delivery to audit-ready paperwork, in four straightforward steps.
We configure your takeback point and deliver the two-bin starter pack: a labelled 20L vape recycling tube for front of house and a 30L UN-approved bin for safe storage, with the required signage, a simple logbook and SOP, and a training session for the owner or area manager. Pay once, you are set up properly.
Returned and end-of-life vapes go into the tube, then staff decant them into the 30L bin, segregated from general waste and kept away from heat and combustibles.
When the 30L container fills, you request a collection. A licensed ADR carrier collects it for the flat all-in price agreed for your account, and the hazardous waste consignment note is handed over on the day.
Consignment notes and weight data go straight into your compliance file. Inspection-ready evidence, kept consistent, with a quarterly statement on optional Compliance Cover.
Your duty of care does not end when the container leaves the shop. Every load follows a documented route from your back room to material recovery.
Your sealed 30L container leaves with our ADR-compliant carrier partner as a Class 9 lithium load, with a hazardous waste consignment note raised for the movement.
The load is delivered to an approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) licensed for category 7.1 vape waste, never a general waste transfer station.
The AATF dismantles each device and separates out the batteries. Lithium cells enter battery recycling, while metals and plastics go to material recovery.
The consignment note and weight data close the loop on your duty of care, so you can show an auditor, insurer or head office exactly where every kilogram went.
Want the detail behind the paperwork? See how ADR Class 9 rules apply to lithium loads and what a hazardous waste consignment note records at every handover. When you’re happy it stacks up, request your quote and we’ll set the whole chain up for you.
Whole devices, pods and vape batteries can all go in together. There is no need to strip batteries out first, because the approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) separates them during recycling. Everything else needs its own route.
Damaged, swollen, hot or leaking devices must be escalated separately, never forced into the standard takeback bin.
A vape retail chain needed compliant takeback in every store: bins customers would use, staff who knew the process, and records that would satisfy Trading Standards. Cell Comply set up bins, signage, SOPs and a single collection route across all seven stores, and keeps the estate inspection-ready as the rules change.
The bin is the physical piece. These pages and guides cover the wider compliance setup, safe disposal questions and collection service it sits inside.
A customer and retailer guide to safe UK disposal routes, WEEE handling and returned-device evidence.
A direct safety answer covering general waste, recycling bins, battery tubes and retailer takeback routes.
Store-level guidance for customer takeback, accepted items, collection evidence and WEEE category accuracy.
Common questions about the setup, vape takeback duties, documentation, flat-price collections and the optional Compliance Cover add-on.
Yes, in almost all cases. Retailers selling vapes have WEEE distributor takeback duties, and since April 2024 vapes are excluded from the Distributor Takeback Scheme, so paying into the DTS no longer covers vape sales. Shops selling more than 32kg of portable batteries a year also pick up free battery takeback duties. Vapes are classified under WEEE category 7.1 (Schedule 3, SI 2025/910), so a signposted takeback point with documented onward collection is the safe baseline.
Every collection comes with a hazardous waste consignment note and weight data for the load, kept consistent so it is ready for an audit or insurer review. Whole vapes contain lithium batteries and move as hazardous WEEE, so the legally correct document is a consignment note rather than a standard waste transfer note. It shows exactly where your vape WEEE went next.
Collection is triggered by the 30L container: when it fills, we arrange the uplift, from regular runs for busy multi-site retailers to on-demand collection for steadier volumes. We agree the cadence at quote and adjust it as your return volumes change.
Yes. Every store gets the same per-store setup, with training for the owner or area manager, and stores in the same area are routed together on one collection run. The whole estate sits on one account with one invoice, and the flat all-in price per collection is quoted for the estate. If you add optional Compliance Cover, the per-store rate is banded down as the estate grows, capped at £299 a month on Essentials and £349 on Licence-Ready, with the full banding on the vape compliance for retail chains page.
Every site runs the same two-bin setup. The 20L vape recycling tube is the customer-facing collection point, with a narrow patent-design lid that stops vape dumping and keeps children’s hands out, and it feeds the 30L UN-approved clip-top bin that the collection runs from. Multi-site estates simply run the pair at each store, and we will confirm the right cadence for your volumes on the setup call.
Two numbers, both agreed on the setup call. A one-off setup fee per store covers the two-bin starter pack, the required signage, a simple logbook and SOP, and a training session for the owner or area manager. Then a flat all-in price per collection, quoted for your store or estate, charged only when a bin is full: carrier, hazardous waste consignment note and record-keeping all included. There are no monthly fees, nothing is ever charged per kilo, and there is no container rental. Specialist jobs such as damaged or leaking devices, expired stock clearances and loose battery streams sit outside the standard price and are quoted per job before anything moves.
Compliance Cover is an optional add-on for shops that want the ongoing compliance admin fully taken off their hands: we maintain the logbooks and takeback records, run virtual staff training refreshers, keep your signage current and manage all the paperwork. Essentials is £29 per site per month, or £299 per site per year; Licence-Ready is £49 per month, or £499 per year, and adds a renewal-ready licence-evidence pack, signed training logs, digital waste tracking handling, an annual review and priority booking for paid hazardous work. It is never a requirement: the one-off setup and flat-price collections stand on their own.
From 12 August 2026, vape producers must finance the real costs of collecting and treating waste vapes through their compliance schemes (SI 2025/910). Treatment is already free at the point of handover, and collection prices are compressing as that funding arrives. No scheme currently offers unconditional free collection to every retailer, but if you are on a legacy per-visit contract there is a good chance you are paying well above today’s rates. Falling market costs feed straight into the flat per-collection price we quote, and if a producer-funded route reaches your area, your stores get it first.
Retail licensing under the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 is expected to make compliance evidence licence-critical: takeback, signage, safe storage and staff training may all need to be demonstrated to keep trading. The Licence-Ready tier maintains a renewal-ready evidence pack and signed training logs so that file already exists when licensing lands, rather than being assembled in a panic before a renewal.
Disposable and rechargeable vapes, pod devices, pods and cartridges (including expired stock pulled from shelves), heated tobacco devices and vape batteries, loose or still inside the device. There is no need to remove batteries first: the approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) separates them out during recycling, and pods travel in the same container as whole devices. Keep e-liquids, non-vape batteries and packaging out of the bin, and escalate any damaged, swollen, hot or leaking devices separately rather than forcing them into standard storage.
Vermiculite is an inert, non-combustible mineral that cushions the lithium-bearing devices, absorbs any leaked e-liquid and helps smother heat if a damaged cell shorts. The law does not mandate vermiculite for a standard takeback bin, but insurers and fire risk assessments increasingly expect it, so it is layered into the 30L bin as fire mitigation for storage and ADR transport.
They travel with our ADR-compliant carrier partner to an approved authorised treatment facility (AATF) licensed for category 7.1 vape waste. There each device is dismantled and any batteries are separated out: the lithium cells go into battery recycling, and the metals and plastics are recovered as materials. Your hazardous waste consignment note and weight data evidence the whole journey.
Tell us your sites and what you pay for collection today, and we’ll come back within one working day with your one-off setup fee and a flat all-in price per collection, quoted for your store or estate. No opaque fees, no obligation.
Prefer to talk it through first? Book a call or try the overpayment checker.
We’ll reply within one working day with your setup quote and the flat all-in price per collection for your sites. Need us sooner? Email elliot@cellcomply.co.uk.