this post was submitted on 28 Oct 2024
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[–] TommySoda 103 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a regular enjoyer of vaping (used to be a pack a day smoker), this is great news. Fuck disposable vapes because theirs nothing "disposable" about them. Plastic, electronics, metals, and lithium batteries that people just fucking throw out their car windows like cigarette butts. That shit is gonna last for thousands of years. And y'all have seen those videos of people's phones and vapes exploding in their pockets when there's a puncture in the battery, right? Yeah let's just throw that shit into landfills and out of car windows and find out what happens.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod 38 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Makes me wonder how many electric car batteries worth of lithium and rare earth metals is just lying in gutters around the world.

[–] Rade0nfighter 36 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

For the UK alone:

In 2022, they found more than 40 tonnes of lithium from single-use vapes was discarded, which is the same amount used to power 5,000 electric vehicles.

Source

[–] thedirtyknapkin 20 points 1 month ago

oh, there's fields and fields of entire cars just sitting in all inhabited remote places. it's becoming a real problem in Alaska. there's towns there literally getting buried in dead cars because it's too expensive to take them anywhere else.

generally if you think "i wonder if this type of thing is getting disposed of properly or if it's a huge ecological problem" the answer is always the latter. the humans in charge don't care about the environment. that's not profitable.

[–] Venat0r 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Also the cells are typically in pretty good condition, as the vape tends to run out of the flavoured/nicotine liquid stuff before the battery gets down to a state of charge that is bad for long term storage.

[–] gmtom 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's not true at all? It's literally always the battery that runs out first. Else you would burn the coils in them.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

They're rechargeable lithium batteries, they should last years. Not a week.

[–] gmtom 2 points 1 month ago (3 children)

True, if you could recharge them, but they don't include ports to do so.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago

Which is why it's a waste of good lithium cells, as the guy you replied to was saying

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

So much that people have started making DIY stuff out of them.

[–] NOT_RICK 27 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I wouldn’t mind this over in the states. I see these pieces of crap strewn out all over the place outside. I see refillable ones like juuls pretty often too but not as often as the little tykes lookin disposable ones.

[–] BowtiesAreCool 4 points 1 month ago

There used to be a massive market of regular battery/tank style vapes and juices. Around 2020 they started cracking down on flavored vaping stuff and it killed almost the entire market of vapes at the time, and left a void that is only filled now by countless disposables companies with strong as hell 5% juice. There’s simply no good options anymore if you don’t want a high concentrate disposable

[–] flicker 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Agreed.

But I just know we would get the what about muh freedom crowd who thinks freedoms should include the right to destroy yourself and everyone around you and the environment.

I sometimes wonder if the Love Canal had happened in modern America, if we would have had a movement to force it cleaned up, or if we would have a bunch of mouth-breathers demanding their right to spend too much for land tainted with industrial wastes.

Anyways, congrats to you all for putting a lid on this menace.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

or if we would have a bunch of mouth-breathers demanding their right to spend too much for land tainted with industrial wastes.

Good news! America has plenty of land and water ruined by industrial and agricultural waste that it hasn't protected. (Also lots that it has, but)

One such case was a lake that suddenly formed in a desert when an irrigation canal overflowed. It has since been fed primarily by runoff from industrial agriculture. It became a resort and tourist destination for a time, until all the birds and fish started dying and rotting on the beaches. We just let it sit there for another fifty years until farming techniques improved to where it was being fed much less, and it started drying out and causing big toxic dust storms. In the last six years or so, more than a hundred years after it formed, there's a local Indian tribe trying to get a new canal to rehabilitate the wetlands with river water (rather than just more runoff).

It's called the Salton Sea

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 month ago

This is fantastic news.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I wish they would ban it in Germany, too.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

EU needs to step in

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (2 children)

this is a direct attack on Big Clive and I won't stand for it

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago

I'll miss all the free rechargeable lithium cells too, but there's plenty of garbage vapes to keep us busy for ages as it is.

[–] Voyajer 8 points 1 month ago

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking of Big Clive and his lithium battery harvesting videos

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago (6 children)

They will be imported as crazy.

Denmark already banned it, but they are everywhere. Literally everywhere. It might be the biggest "black market" right now for anything really.

They need refillable ones. Chargeable. It needs to be a product you buy, and they have it for a loooong time, only to buy more fluid.

You can't stop it by banning it, and it's better than smoking, so please just give us the eco friendly alternative.

[–] thedirtyknapkin 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (8 children)

what do you mean? there's a million refillable options out there. have been for years. the popularity of disposables is mostly about convenience, habit (it's similar to buying cigarettes), and laziness. it's a great example of how much people just don't give a shit. it's actually waaaay cheaper in the long run to use a refillable one. gives a better experience with more flavor options too. but it's maybe 5% less convenient to use. therefore only about 5% of users go for that.

i fucking hate human nature.

i have like 5 friends in trying to convince away from the disposables right now. I'm 3 years in, and may have one that would be willing to try it i bought it for him. it's so fucking hard to change anyone's buying habits. i don't get why. these are all people that SAY they care about the environment. then i show them an easy to fix way that they are FUCKING INCREDIBLY AWFUL to the environment and they just shrug...

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[–] Venat0r 19 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Haven't rechargeable ones been available way longer than disposable ones?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes. But some areas banned those first, and the flavoring you put in them. Unsure about UK considering they're the ones publishing studies that aren't just big tobacco/pharma lobby lies like the Diacetyl bullshit, I'd think they're largely vape friendly (but who ever let those pesky scientists get in the way of a good ban, huh?)

[–] BluesF 7 points 1 month ago

Yeah the UK government is largely pro vaping as a way to stop smoking, but thankfully very anti disposables and marketing to children. I don't have much good to say about our government, but I'm with them on this.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Denmark is a bit different though. They've cracked down on all flavours except menthol and tobacco, and they've taxed it similar to cigarettes. The UK is only banning disposable vapes.

[–] undergroundoverground 4 points 1 month ago (7 children)

We should build some kind of a moat around the UK. If we manage that, while not full proof, I have no doubt that banning it in the UK will be easier to do than somewhere without a moat.

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[–] Emerica 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Is that not already a thing over there? Refillable tanks with replaceable coils and batteries have been a thing for over a decade in the states. They were the original vaping devices as far as I know. Then companies started making this “disposable” crap.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You've got the eco friendly alternative.

What do you think people were vaping with before the disposable vapes?

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[–] MeatStiq 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have my friends saving their empty vapes. I plan on making a backup battery out of them.

[–] JPSound 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Genuinely interested, how would you go about doing that?

[–] MeatStiq 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Tbh I found someone doing it on YouTube.

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[–] bokherif 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I love the convenience, but nobody gives a fuck about recycling or nature in the US. I called a few smoke shops on how I could recycle these disposable vapes with rechargeable batteries and they literally said to throw it in the trash.

[–] BowtiesAreCool 2 points 1 month ago

You can simply search for a local hazard material or battery cleanup/pickup event. Most dumps will take them. But throwing them in your regular trash causes risk of fire to your house, garbage truck, and the dump. I hold onto all my old disposables to take to the dump.

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