Suan for Sens eRecycling: Be a Vape Recycler
Disposable vapes are often carelessly thrown away, even though valuable raw materials could be recovered through recycling. Suan’s «Be a Vape Recycler» campaign for the Sens eRecycling Foundation aims to educate the public and encourage people to dispose of empty e-cigarettes properly.
The cross-media campaign by Sens eRecycling and Suan aims to raise awareness for the environmentally friendly disposal of e-cigarettes, thereby making an active contribution to environmental protection.
The environmental problem of disposable vapes
"E-cigarettes contain lithium batteries, which contain both valuable raw materials and harmful substances. To ensure that the raw materials can be recovered and no harmful substances are released into the environment, empty e-cigarettes should be recycled. Importers and retailers in Switzerland are legally obliged to take back all types of used e-cigarettes," says the website Vape-recycler.ch.
A Study from Great Britain suggests that disposable vapes are also a significant environmental problem in this country: In the UK, 50 percent of vapes end up in the trash and are not recycled. This could be used to produce 1,200 electric car engines a year, and such a return rate would even be desirable for Switzerland, because according to Sabrina Bjöörn from Sens eRecycling, almost no vapes ended up in recycling here as of 2023. The assumption was a negligible 5 percent.
As an initial communication measure, Sens eRecycling and Suan 2023 developed a recycling box for retail outlets and the website Vape-recycler.ch. This provides comprehensive information to make the topic tangible. These initial measures have reportedly increased the collection rate to 20 percent. The long-term goal is to achieve at least 50 percent.
Campaign expanded this year
To achieve this goal, the campaign for 2024 was scaled up and a cross-media design concept was developed to appeal to the target group of 18- to 30-year-old vape smokers at their leisure activities or in stores.
Sens eRecycling provides vape recycling bags and boxes designed by Suan at points of sale of e-cigarettes, making it easy to collect and return used vapes. The full bags can be deposited in the letterbox. There they are collected by the post office and sent for recycling.
A newly developed collection concept includes the placement of the cardboard boxes at festivals, bars and clubs, where they are prominently displayed on the counters.
A large sculptural recycling box in the shape of a vape as an eye-catcher was developed by the company Layercake, the surface was designed by Suan. It is currently in the test phase at points of sale.
With brightly colored stickers, stores and kiosks can actively declare themselves as vape recyclers and thus further raise awareness of environmentally friendly behavior. A comprehensive media kit will be made available to recycling collection points, vRB partners, recyclers and other interested parties to effectively support the implementation and dissemination of the campaign content. In a next step, eye-catching stickers will also be placed on public waste garbage cans to remind people that e-cigarettes do not belong in the bin.
Animated key visuals convey facts
The social media campaign developed by Suan spreads the animated key visual in collaboration with Dreifive. Selected facts from the website are used to illustrate the urgency of the problem in a playful way. The communication also refers to the Vape Recycling Bag and the website.
DOOH measures at highly frequented locations in Switzerland are intended to provide additional visibility and spread the message far and wide. In mid-July, the e-boards and e-panels at Zurich main station lit up in green. According to Suan, the key visuals reached numerous commuters and travelers, and SRF reported on the campaign.
