In attempts to reduce harmful vaping habits, governments increased waste of plastics and electronics.
What's happening?
In a post on the r/mildlyinfuriating subreddit, a user broke apart a disposable vape into 13 separate pieces. All the pieces were made of plastics or electronics.
"How is this legal??" the original poster asked. "I am disgusted by humanity."
Commenters pointed out that disposable vapes have proliferated, especially in recent years as governments tried to crack down on vapes with refillable pods, such as those made by Juul.
"Disposable vapes were created to work around regulations that were put in place," one explained. "So instead of having vapes that use reusable batteries with interchangeable pod systems similar to what Juul was, we have these. Which are arguably 100x worse than Juul."
Why are single-use vapes concerning?
Single-use vapes lead to excess pollution from manufacturing, transport, and waste processing. All the energy and money — production and labor costs — that go into the creation of the product are not well-used, as the devices immediately end up in landfills or as litter.
Once in landfills, the plastic doesn't biodegrade. Instead, it breaks up into microplastics that infiltrate water supplies and food chains. For example, plastics can bioaccumulate in wildlife, causing underdevelopment, illness, and death.
On top of plastic waste, electronic waste can leach toxic chemicals such as lead and mercury into soil and water, contaminating ecosystems.
With increased demand for lithium-ion batteries in everything from smartphones to electric vehicles, the failure to recycle these materials leads to higher production costs and further depletion of natural resources.
Is the company doing anything about this?
While the Redditor didn't call out a specific company, their picture was a strong match for Elf Bar vapes.
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Definitely 👍 Elf Bar has a recycling program called GreenPowercycle. It features recycling bins at retail stores where products are sold so customers can return their vapes to be properly recycled at a lithium battery recycling facility.
While this is a valiant effort, Elf Bar's "green" ads were banned in the European Union because of concerns they would mislead consumers into thinking the disposable vapes could be properly recycled at home.
What's being done about single-use vapes more broadly?
Governments are cracking down on disposable vapes and vapes in general. However, the proliferation of vape companies is far exceeding capacities to enforce new regulations.
"I work in the cannabis industry and the amount of trash we create is staggering! The industry is moving more towards 'All in One' or 'Disposable' devices which get thrown in the trash after they have consumed the product. It's a sad state of affairs," one commenter said.
One new piece of EU legislation banned disposable vapes starting June 1. This law made it illegal for retailers to sell or distribute any disposable vapes. It will not be illegal to own them, and customers who have them are expected to bring them back to retailers for proper recycling.
On an individual basis, you can get rewards or even cash back for your old electronics through companies, including Trashie, that offer ways to return your e-waste for different types of compensation.
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