E-waste from vape cartridges is becoming a deeply frustrating problem. Besides being made for single use, they're often designed with electronics like LED screens and lithium batteries — components that cause major pollution when they're tossed in with the ordinary trash.
They should definitely be recycled — but it's not recommended to do it like one Redditor in a recent post on the r/Upcycling subreddit.
What's happening?
The original poster in this thread took a concerningly casual DIY approach to battery recycling.


"Others see wasteful plastic trash. I see future E-bike batteries," they said.
The Redditor collected a pile of used vape cartridges. "I've made a deal with every vape shop in the county for them to start collecting disposable vapes for me," they said. "One already had a sizable horde collected and gave it to me, no questions asked. Each one has a fat 3.7v 800mah lithium cell in it. So wasteful! I've got 20 identical ones here and by my estimate if I link them all together in a 24v configuration, I'll have as much capacity as a $400 commercial battery."
It's true that, in theory, a lot of small lithium batteries should add up to one large rechargeable battery that can be hooked up to any appropriately sized device.
The flaw in their plan, though, is that a low-quality battery that has been used carelessly could have less capacity than it started out with.
Combine that with the fact that overcharged lithium batteries catch fire, the fire risk is increased when the battery is modified, and then multiply the risk by the number of small batteries involved, and the original poster's plan seems destined for disaster.
"Be careful & be ready for a lithium fire," said a commenter. "Like, have a steel box nearby; a k class fire extinguisher might not be enough. I've thought about doing this a lot, but those batteries are cheap, already abused, and in order to rig them all into a working system you're gonna need a lot of management. You'll be losing a lot to the wiring/heat management too."
Why is it important to find a use for e-waste?
Despite how dangerous it is to DIY lithium battery recycling, it's easy to see why the original poster was tempted. It would be a real money-saver if you could use e-waste this way.
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Meanwhile, clean energy sources like wind and solar only produce power when conditions are right, so switching to these less polluting options requires battery storage, making the components in lithium batteries valuable. On the other hand, that same treasure turns to pollution if it's thrown in the trash.
Are researchers doing anything about lithium batteries?
One team of researchers has developed a safer lithium battery that is less likely to catch fire, so future DIY projects with upcycled batteries could still be possible. Others are hard at work on better commercial battery recycling options
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What can I do with my lithium batteries?
Instead of trying to rig your batteries together yourself, take your e-waste to the professionals. Many businesses offer recycling programs, some of which will provide rewards for the right devices.
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