AFTER a rise in "near-miss" incidents with highly flammable vapes and e-cigarettes, Scottish Borders Council (SBC) is asking vapers to recycle responsibly.

The local authority has reported a rise in incidents where vapes and e-cigarettes have combusted in waste collection vehicles or at waste transfer stations causing fires which pose "a serious risk to life" for staff.

Vapes and e-cigarettes which have been incorrectly disposed of in general waste bins or in roadside recycling bins have caused a number of dangerous incidents.

Councillor Jenny Linehan, executive member for environment and transport, said: “We’ve recently had a number of dangerous incidents caused by fires started by vapes and when this happens it can cause a serious risk to life for the staff working in these areas and damage expensive equipment paid for by the taxpayer.

“With this in mind I’m appealing to any users of vapes and e-cigarettes to make the effort to dispose of these items correctly for the safety of our staff and to ensure we can properly recycle these mass-produced items.

“All of our CRC’s can accept disposable and reusable vapes or e-cigarettes and even some of the larger supermarkets have specific bins where batteries and vapes can be disposed of responsibly.

“An estimated 1.3 million vapes or e-cigarettes are discarded across the UK every week and many are disposed of incorrectly.

“This increases the risk of fires in our waste collection vehicles or in our waste transfer stations as the batteries overheat rapidly and can spontaneously combust."

Vapes and e-cigarettes contain lithium batteries and are prone to overheating if not disposed of properly in designated battery or vape bins.

SBC has added vape and e-cigarette recycling bins to all of its recycling centres – in Galashiels, Hawick, Selkirk, Duns, Peebles, Eyemouth, and Kelso – to avoid dangerous fires breaking out.

According to Zero Waste Scotland, an estimated 26 million disposable vapes were thrown away in Scotland in the last year, with 10 per cent being littered and more than half disposed of incorrectly.

For more information on what can be taken to SBC's recycling centres visit the SBC website.