A clever graduate has used 80 discarded vape batteries to power his e-scooter—and to make a point about waste.
It’s wild that we’re wasting lithium batteries like that.
That’s what happens when producers of consumer items are not regulated. There’s no downside besides cost, so producers use the cheapest method available to get their product to market.
There’s a video on YT about a guy repairing a single use cock ring. A viewer apparently sent in his used cock ring for repair. Creator discovers it doesn’t work because of a corroded battery connection. I think he later finds the battery at a local store or orders it online. Replaced the battery and the sex toy is now functioning again.
He even adds some liquid resistance and warranties the item against further damage (or so he says, haha)
I think nicotine does something to people’s brains, rendering them unable to consider consequences.
I fucking hate disposable vapes and any single-use electronics. So wasteful. I bet a lot of people who use disposable vapes would consider themselves to be environmentally-conscious.
Discarded lithium batteries are also a fire hazard.
These seem like a great opportunity for a deposit, like many states have for bottles and cans. Pay a few bucks extra when you buy the device, and get it back when you return it.
I don’t vape, but when I received a depleted disposable vape from a roommate, I opened it up to find the battery was perfectly rechargeable. Such a waste and it is quite hazardous too to dispose in regular trash.
We need more of this out in the open to demonstrate: A) how bad e-waste is, and B) how useful recycling is.
Good on this guy for making cool shit to do such things.
Damn I wish more vape places were like the one I go to locally. They ask people who buy the disposals to drop them off back at the shop and they then recycle all of them after the box fills up.
We did similar but a much smaller scale. People were throwing them down on the floor around the grounds at work. One guy said “you know that’s e waste? Its got a lithium battery in it.” We then collected about 4 of them and he installed them in some old bike lights another guy had (the lights were great, but burned through AAs like nothing I’ve seen, two of these cells and a little board kit you buy off amazon and it lasted a week on full charge).
I think a ton of the disposable vapes are THC ones being bought by travelers from states without legal pot. People not worried about being caught with a illegal device buying them… Wtf you doing?
It’s just a convenience thing. Disposable vapes can’t be charged and the battery lives the life of the vape. I have not personally seen a non-disposable vape battery that has a user servicable battery compartment for 510 threaded vape cartridges either fwiw.
Lithium ion batteries are basically never recycled on average. Regardless of where batteries are used though you usually find that something like 5% or less of them are actually recycled. Considering lithium ion batteries last less than 10 years and every piece of consumer electronics that isn’t bound to a cable nowadays has them i’m guessing we waste a lot more battery volume in the rest of our day to day devices. Cars, laptops, cell phones, ebikes, escooters, vapes, nintendo switches and all kinds of kids toys, solar generator batteries etc etc etc all contribute to the problem and they are ubiquitous.
I’m 100% for a lithium ion battery recycling deposit fee. I think it should be fairly expensive too, maybe 50% of the battery replacement cost or more of a quality battery replacement and based on gram weight of sold battery in a product. The toxic chemicals that get into the environment from these things catching fire when improperly disposed after long enough timeframe is no joke and we shouldn’t treat it like one.
A lot of disposal vapes CAN be charged, they just can’t be refilled!
I think mostly people buy disposables because they don’t know how 510 batteries work. Or sometimes the strain you want is only available as a disposable.
I don’t like disposables because I’ve ran out of battery when 1/3 if the product was left. I’ve switched to concentrates and a vape that handles them.
I had a few where the battery died while there was still stuff to vape in it. Doubly wasteful. I then switched to a concentrate vape and buying live rosin/resin
