Californians have been paying a recycling fee on covered battery-embedded products since January 1, 2026. From August 1, 2026, CalRecycle may adjust that fee every year. That August date is fee-adjust authority. It is not the date vapes joined the program. They did not. Electronic nicotine delivery systems, including electronic cannabis vaping devices, are still carved out. A Discount Vape Pen analysis of Ahrefs monthly volume through August 2026 finds that the leftover question, how to get rid of the cell, now searches at the same scale in the United Kingdom as it does in the United States.
Combined monthly interest in four waste and take-back terms (vape recycling, recycle vape, how to dispose of a vape, vape battery recycling) is about 630 in the UK and about 620 in the US. The match is striking because US search for “disposable vape” is about 42,000 a month, more than double the UK’s about 18,000. US vape-recycling search is down 53.9 percent year on year to June 2026. That drop is leftover-search context, not evidence the disposal question went away. “Vape recycling” itself is about 350 a month in the United Kingdom against about 150 in the United States. Britain banned throwaway sales. California taxed many gadgets with batteries inside, then left vapes out. People in both places are still typing the same disposal queries.
Marc Pitts, co-founder at Discount Vape Pen, an online vaping store that sells refillable 510-thread cartridge batteries, said the carve-out is the policy, and search is what remains.
“The UK made throwaway vapes illegal. California put a recycling fee on gadgets with batteries inside, then carved vapes out of it. Search is the leftover. People on both sides of the Atlantic are still typing how to get rid of a lithium cell that was never designed to be taken apart.”
For San Diego County the distinction is practical, not semantic. A power tool, a pair of earbuds, or a handheld gadget with a sealed battery can sit inside the covered battery-embedded product fee that retailers have been collecting since January. A vape pen does not. Electronic cannabis vaping devices do not either. The exclusion is written as ENDS, including electronic cannabis vaping devices. Changing the oil in the cartridge does not move the device into the fee. The August 1, 2026 date did not move it either. CalRecycle may now revise the fee annually. The statute still leaves this category out.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control occupies the other column. California treats ENDS as hazardous waste, P075, even when empty. A spent device is not ordinary trash because the tank is dry. Nicotine residue rules still apply in that listing. Lithium-ion fire risk still applies in any listing. Households from Chula Vista to Oceanside that drop a dead pen in the kitchen trash are not following DTSC practice. They are in the gap the carve-out left.
“A 510 battery is hardware. It is not one of the 45 FDA-authorised e-cigarettes, and we do not pretend otherwise. What the search data shows is that disposal is now a UK-scale question, not a footnote to a ban that already happened.”
The FDA’s 45 authorized ENDS, current as of May 2026, are nicotine products that cleared a marketing pathway. A 510-thread cartridge battery is not on that list.
The original search basket is four indexed phrases. In the UK they run about 350, 10, 200 and 70, totaling 630. In the US they run about 150, 10, 400 and 60, totaling 620. Two terms, lithium vape waste and replaceable vape battery, are not indexed in Ahrefs in either country and were left out of the totals rather than counted as zero. Brand names were not included. Comparison terms for the disposable market were disposable vape and single use vape.
San Diego already lives with lithium-ion fire risk in the waste stream, from power banks to scooters to sealed gadgets. Vapes were the category California chose not to fund through the new embedded-battery fee. DTSC still calls them hazardous. Search data says adults on both sides of the Atlantic are still looking up how to dispose of them, at UK scale, even though American disposable-vape search is more than twice as large. The leftover is the cell, not a new product launch.
Monthly search figures are Ahrefs Keywords Explorer estimates for the United States and the United Kingdom through August 2026. Combined waste totals cover four indexed terms only. Unindexed terms were omitted. On California law, August 1, 2026 is CalRecycle’s authority to adjust the covered battery-embedded product fee annually. It is not a start date for a vape recycling fee. Electronic nicotine delivery systems, including electronic cannabis vaping devices, remain excluded.
