Unfortunately, vaping has become extremely popular over the past decade. One in 20 Americans use e-cigarettes, and a shocking one in 10 middle and high school students admit to using them.
The sheer amount of single-use disposable vapes available today is causing a major problem for our planet.
One Reddit user took to the r/Anticonsumption subreddit to lament the problem, writing, "You see them everywhere, just how big of an environmental issue are disposable vapes?"
The Redditor went on to reference a study done by Truth Initiative highlighting how young people dispose of their vapes. Spoiler alert — there is no good way to discard vapes.
While this Redditor's original complaint was that he sees vapes on the ground everywhere — which is a terrible way for people to dispose of them — apparently, throwing them in the trash isn't much better.
On top of plastic vapes taking hundreds of years to decompose in landfills, their lithium-ion batteries are also a fire hazard when disposed of inappropriately and are also a waste of lithium that could have been recycled.
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The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that 150 million disposable vapes are thrown away yearly, which equals enough lithium for roughly 6,000 Teslas.
According to a survey from Truth Initiative, 68% of disposable e-cigarette users aged 15-24 threw their empty disposable e-cigarettes in the trash, 13% dropped them in regular recycling bins, and 9% littered them on the ground, while only 8% sent them to electronic recycling facilities.
Truth Initiative suggests a couple of options to "safely dispose" of e-cigarettes, but they are not easy, and they depend on the type of vape and your local waste department's restrictions.
"With 19% of current vapers tossing five or more vapes in the trash every month, empty disposable e-cigarettes are piling up and contributing to a growing global e-waste problem," said the organization.
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Reddit users agreed that disposable vapes are a massive problem.
"The push for everything to have batteries, everything to have chips, everything to be electric, is hastening our downfall," wrote one user.
Another commented, "Every time I go on a walk, I pick up at least 3 vapes that people have either dropped or just thrown on the ground. I honestly hate those obnoxiously bright coloured hunks of plastic."
One Redditor used some colorful language to explain how much they despise vapes, saying, "I f****** hate vapes. Gets kids addicted, gets factory workers sick, damages the environment with s*** like this. Just harm all the way down."
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