- Short answer
- Yes — vape retailers can't use DTS, so UK sellers must take back waste vapes in store or set up an alternative collection point, online included.
- DTS route
- Vape retailers are excluded from DTS, per GOV.UK's WEEE guidance updated 12 August 2025.
- What you accept
- Vapes and vape parts customers return, such as used pods, coils or batteries.
- Single-use vapes
- Sales banned since 1 June 2025, online and in shops; returned ones still fall under take-back.
- Without a shop
- An alternative collection point; GOV.UK's general guidance describes a designated collection facility, alone or with other distributors.
- Your website
- Online retailers must publish the customer information GOV.UK lists, including which take-back service they provide, on their website.
- As of
- GOV.UK WEEE and single-use vapes guidance and legislation.gov.uk, read 26 September 2026.
Does the Distributor Take Back Scheme cover vape sellers?
For other electrical goods, GOV.UK lets you join the Distributor Take Back Scheme (DTS) instead of running your own take-back if your business sells less than £100,000 of electrical and electronic equipment a year, or you only sell online (see the general duty).
Vapes are carved out: GOV.UK's WEEE guidance, updated 12 August 2025, states that vape retailers are excluded from DTS. Instead:
If you sell vapes, you must take back waste vapes in store or set up an alternative collection point.
That covers vape retailers "in store or online", and GOV.UK warns: "You can be prosecuted if you do not comply with the regulations."
Which waste vapes do you have to accept back?
GOV.UK's single-use vapes guidance says a vape seller must accept vapes and vape parts (such as used pods, coils or batteries) that customers return for recycling. More generally, GOV.UK's in-store take-back page says you must offer to take back "waste of the same type as the item your customers buy from you".
That includes "any single-use vapes returned by customers after the ban began on 1 June 2025." The ban covers sales online and in shops, nicotine or not. The regulations now give vapes their own EEE category, 7.1 (SI 2025/910).
How can an online-only store meet the vape take-back duty?
Without a shop, in-store take-back is out, which leaves an alternative collection point. GOV.UK's general alternative take-back page, written for all electrical waste, describes a designated collection facility (DCF), set up "on your own or with other distributors", with a producer compliance scheme agreed to return the waste to an Approved Authorised Treatment Facility.
Valpak, the DTS operator, also offers a separate Vape Takeback Scheme with local collection points — one provider's commercial service (Valpak's site).
GOV.UK also requires online retailers to publish on their website the customer information it lists, starting with which take-back service they provide.
Shopify's Help Center pages on Managed Markets prohibited items, GPSR and consumer protection, read on 26 September 2026, don't describe the vape take-back duty.
This article was written entirely by AI under human editorial direction. The editor sets the topic and structure, runs multi-stage validation on facts, links, and interactive elements, and verifies the output is useful from a business perspective. All claims are checked against official Shopify sources. Details may change — always confirm critical data at shopify.com.
Editorial Policy