'At least 500' disposable vapes chucked away on Scots beauty spot spark outcry

dailyrecord.co.uk:

At least 500 disposable vapes were thrown away on a single Scots beach last week amid the scorching weather, causing a litter nightmare and threatening marine life.Local litter-pickers collected 150 discarded e-cigs in just 24 hours over the weekend at Irvine Beach, North Ayrshire.The shocking scale of single-use vapes litter at the shoreline - on the same week it scooped a prestigious Scots beach award - has devastated residents and was met with outrage by campaigners.They said it reinforced the call repeatedly made by the Record through our Bin The Vapes campaign to outlaw these polluting disposable gadgets.Clean-up teams including volunteers and council workers hauled huge volumes of rubbish off the beach on Sunday including drinks containers, rubbish, clothing and more than 100 towels.One volunteer group, the Irvine Clean Up Crew, took away a staggering 78 bags of litter as scores of irresponsible beachgoers left the place a mess.Dr Jen Pless, chairwoman of the clean-up group, told the Record: “There are obviously very sensible people that will take everything home with them and that's fantastic.“But there are also so many people that think that they can leave everything behind.

And yesterday we collected 78 bags off that beach - which is just not okay. It's really not.”And Dr Pless, a geologist, said disposable vapes had been rife among the litter.She said: “I don’t know how many I picked up the other day below the high tide mark which means they've been in the water overnight.“They’re full of chemicals, they’ve got batteries in them, wiring, there’s plastic - and then there’s all the packaging they come in as well, the foil wrapper and the cardboard on top of that.“It’s everywhere - absolutely everywhere.“There