If you are a consumer
Return your e-cigarettes to wherever you buy them or order the vape recycling bag for home delivery.
Easy and convenient
At sales outlets: e-cigarettes are taken back free of charge wherever you can buy them, even if you don’t buy any new products.
Using the vape recycling bag: order the Vape Recycling Bag and have it delivered to your home free of charge. Fill the bag and place it conspicuously in the letterbox. Swiss Post will collect it and take it to the recycling centre for you.
At collection points: used vapes can also be disposed of free of charge at all SENS collection points.
Efficient
Every year, 10 million e-cigarettes on average are imported into Switzerland – we want to recycle at least 50 per cent of these together with our partners.
Important
Each e-cigarette contains lithium, nickel, aluminium or copper. These recyclable materials are valuable and need to be placed back into circulation. With every correctly disposed of vape, we protect our environment and prevent fires from being started or our soil and water from being polluted by improper disposal.
Free
Recycling is funded through an advance recycling contribution (ARC), which our partners levy on the sale price of e-cigarettes. This means that the return options are free of charge because the cost of recycling is already included in the purchase price of the vape.
If you are a sales outlet, an institution or event organizer
Order our collection and information material free of charge and lead by example for a clean environment.
Acting in conjunction with various partners, SENS eRecycling has devised an industry solution for the environmentally friendly disposal of e-cigarettes.
Together with the support of sales outlets, educational institutions, catering establishments, event organisers and other interested parties, we are setting an example and ensuring that consumers are made aware of how to dispose of vapes correctly. In this way, we reduce fires that can ignite due to improper disposal and minimise pollution of our environment.
What I can do as a sales outlet
As a seller of e-cigarettes, your point of sale can easily support the industry solution by becoming a vape recycler. Order our vape collection box and our Vape Recycling Bags, allowing your customers to conveniently return their empty vapes. When selling e-cigarettes, actively point out the return option so that your customers can make direct use of the environmentally friendly disposal methods.
What institutions and event organizer can do
Institutions such as educational facilities, catering establishments or event organisers can also order our vape collection box and Vape Recycling Bags as well as other information material free of charge. This material helps them prevent vapes from ending up in rubbish bins and helps raise awareness about recycling and sustainable disposal.
Use the Vape Recycling Bag to conveniently send collected e-cigarettes for recycling by letterbox.
Media dossier e-cigarettes
Download the vape media dossier here
The media dossier contains text modules for your website or social media channels, image material for your points of sale or logos to indicate that you are also a ‘vape recycler’.
Download
The industry solution for the environmentally friendly disposal of e-cigarettes
With the industry solution for e-cigarettes, which has been operational since 1 July 2023, SENS eRecycling is now offering manufacturers and importers a standardised process for the collection, transportation and environmentally friendly disposal of e-cigarettes. The costs are covered by an advance recycling contribution (ARC), which is levied by the manufacturer or importer as a fixed amount on the sale price. Currently, 75 per cent of distributors of e-cigarettes are affiliated with SENS.
Not yet a partner?
All manufacturers, importers and retailers of e-cigarettes that have not yet adhered to the industry solution have the opportunity to do so here.
Collection and return by post
When ordered, SENS eRecycling delivers Vape Recycling Bags and vape collection boxes directly to the sales outlets of contractual partners. Operators of sales outlets can use these to collect returned e-cigarettes and send them for recycling free of charge by post.
Alternatively, sales outlets – as well as consumers themselves – can hand in disused e-cigarettes free of charge to any SENS collection point in Switzerland.
Consumers and institutions such as schools and restaurants can also order the vape recycling bag free of charge to help ensure the correct disposal of vapes.
Statutory take-back obligation thanks to ORDEE
Due to their batteries and electrical heating coils, e-cigarettes qualify as electrical devices and are subject to the Ordinance on the Return, Taking Back and Disposal of Electrical and Electronic Equipment ORDEE. Accordingly, manufacturers, importers and retailers in Switzerland are obliged by law to take back all types of used e-cigarettes.
ARC of CHF 0.10 for recycling
As with other electrical and electronic devices, when buying e-cigarettes Swiss consumers already pay a contribution for subsequent recycling to partners implementing the industry solution. This advance recycling contribution (ARC) is added to the sale price and amounts to CHF 0.10 for disposable or reusable e-cigarettes as well as battery carriers with a battery, or CHF 0.05 for battery carriers without a battery.
The advance recycling contribution (ARC) is levied by manufacturers or importers as a fixed amount on the sale price and is subject to value added tax. It cannot be incorporated into pricing policy as a marketing instrument.