A high-tech yet needless vape purchase by a Reddit user's coworker has left the internet astounded.
"A disposable vape with cheap headphones my coworker got," the OP headlined the post, along with a photo of the vape with plastic Bluetooth earbuds to the subreddit r/Anticonsumption.
"I mean, why? What's the purpose?" the OP asked.
The post accrued thousands of upvotes as Redditors questioned what the purpose of such a vape could be.
Material Focus estimated in 2024 that 8.2 million disposable vapes are thrown away every week or recycled incorrectly. That's enough to equate to thirteen vapes every second.
Meanwhile, Play It Green explained that "the materials used in headphones, such as plastic and metals, are often derived from non-renewable resources and require a significant amount of energy to produce."
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With that, about 22 to 55 million tons of e-waste is thrown into landfills every year, cultivating a whopping amount of litter when combined with disposable vapes.
The high-tech vape design shared by the OP indeed reflects a hyper-consumer world, where vapes such as these are made to dispose of rather than reuse, impacting the health of the planet and people.
When vapes look intriguing, they are more likely to be bought and sold to adolescents who find the product compelling. Vapes are nearly impossible to recycle due to the way they are made, so they ultimately end up in a landfill, which releases toxic gas contaminating the air, water, and soil necessary to human survival. So, the combination of headphones and vapes to boost sales ultimately produces even more environmental degradation.
"They don't put such bullshit on proper vapes, but if you wanna appeal to kids nowadays you have to [appeal to] novelty," wrote one commenter.
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Definitely 👍 Others suggested solutions to help reduce the environmental impact.
"Just buy a reusable battery and all the vape juice you can huff for a fraction of the cost of constantly buying disposable vapes," they said.
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