Hawaiʻi has just approved a statewide sales ban on disposable e-cigarettes.
Gov. Josh Green on Tuesday signed Senate Bill 2175 into law, prohibiting the sale of non-refillable and non-rechargeable e-cigarettes. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2027, and violators can face fines of $100 per day.
The new law comes as local leaders try to curb the growing use of nicotine through e-cigarettes, or vapes, especially among Hawaiʻi’s youth.
Kalāheo High School freshman Maya Butts has been an advocate for the measure.
“For a very long time, our school bathrooms have not felt like functional restrooms and more like places to vape,” Butts said at Wednesday’s ceremony. “I've watched my smart, athletic friends completely lose their motivation. They get hooked on these devices that taste like candy, move on to other substances, then lose their spark altogether.”
Lawmakers called the law a first in the U.S. In 2019 San Francisco became the first municipality to pass a total vape ban, and many states have also passed tobacco and e-cigarette restrictions — though many of those laws are more limited, and focused on flavored tobacco, online sales or the legal smoking age.
More than 10% of high school students and 13% of middle school students in the state used e-cigarettes in 2023, according to a 2025 Hawaiʻi Youth Risk Behavior Survey report.
Green also signed into law House Bill 1573, which requires e-cigarette manufacturers to certify to the state annually that their products comply with Hawaiʻi and federal regulations.
Rep. Scot Matayoshi, who chairs the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, said the law will make a significant dent in what products can be sold in the islands.
“This will eliminate 99.9% of all of the vaping products on the shelves out there, including almost all of the flavors out there, and those flavors are the ones that target kids, that tempt kids into this lifelong nicotine addiction,” Matayoshi said.
He added that the law narrows the amount of vape products that can be sold in the state down to 45 products that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“We are here to celebrate a massive shift,” Butts said. “By clearing these products from store shelves, it will allow students to focus more on what we truly love. We get to focus on our sports, our education, and just enjoying being teenagers without the constant distraction and pressure.”
SB 2175 also highlighted the toll that vapes have on the environment. The U.S. Public Interest Research Group found that disposable e-cigarettes lead to more single-use plastic and lithium-ion batteries in landfills. Its 2023 report found that Americans threw away nearly 500,000 disposable e-cigarettes every day.
