Vapes, chargers, and other “invisible” e-waste are a 9-million-ton problem.::Chargers, vapes, and other small electronics make up millions of tons of “invisible” e-waste each year. Recycling them could recover billions of dollars worth of precious materials.
Who would have guessed that disposable capes would be a MASSIVE waste issue? Think of all the plastic and REMs and other tech shit that is produced just to be thrown away from this garbage.
Not all heroes wear capes.
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And we see the issue partly with the regular tabacco products.
Cigarette butts everywhere BUT they are small, can be easily ignored and disposed off or cleaned by the waste crew.
Those things are basically 10x the size alone, made from plastic (the butts are too but can be more easily cleaned) and have precious metals inside.
Disposable vape mods need to go, spent units still have batteries inside which can cause fire or small explosion in the waste bin.
For other e-waste manufacturers/oem should think if obsolescence still a good thing in the long run.
Sometimes when I see disposable vapes as litter I pick them up and take them to Best Buy, where they have Li-ion recycling.
Most of the disposable users I see are teens.
It’s just such a waste of money. I paid like $60 for my last mod and I’ve had it for around 5 years. No plans to replace it unless it dies.
Box mods are sturdy and cost efficient. My variable wattage bought in '19 still kicking, however my mech mod i bought in '15 lasted 4 years (corrosion sucks)
Genuinely curious how this compares to cigarette waste and litter. Including lighters that go along with them
I suspect cigarettes generated a lot more litter but with a lot less precious metals in it
bic lighters are such a scam honestly, you can refill pretty much any other brand besides bic. should be illegal.
I thought you could refill Bics… huh. Either way, I have a zippo with a butane replacement. Doesn’t evaporate and ni wick, so it’s easier to maintain.
yeah, a zippo’s the one to get. not a smoker myself, but they preach about those things like they’re gonna cure lung cancer.
Pretty much everything, except for the cellophane is going to degrade in a year or less. Disposable vapes are all plastic and batteries.
While they could and should do better, this seems like another paper straw argument to shift blame to consumers. It’s all our fault for not recycling coke cans.
A problem that could be solved overnight by legislation. And yet, the consumers are to blame.
Something like the lead acid battery laws that make those batteries the most recycled item.
Force sellers to accept all the dead ones and create a mandatory recycling regime.
In some countries theirs already pickups so the logistics for all of this is already done.
I get your point but coke cans are efficient to recycle - aluminum takes more energy to create new than to recycle. Plastics have something like 2% recycling rates so “coke bottle” makes the point better.
I think they should just make a “Pfand” system for them like we have in germany for plastic bottles. You pay 1€ or 2€ more and you get the money back when you bring it back to the store. That way they can be recycled, which should be pretty easy anyway since you just need to replace the cotton and put new liquid into it. Banning them wouldn’t be a good idea IMO because it’s pretty easy to order them straight from China and not pay any taxes, so people would probably do that and sell them on the street. If more people do that, it will also be a lot easier for kids to buy them, which is already happening but this would just amplify it because there would be more sellers.
The recycling and green movement was actually created by companies to put the blame on consumers rather than companies like big oil, Nestle, and the like. The next time you see you use a paper straw or recycle, remember that whatever little change you’re trying to make, there’s some company out there dumping oil and hazardous materials into waterways or constantly polluting the air because of factories.
