Single use vapes? Aren’t those called cigarettes or (given the article’s origins) fags?
Nah, these have electronics inside, and appeal to teens with their fruit flavors (which are banned in cigarettes in most countries). I took some apart, they are terribly wasteful, especially when all you need to make them reusable is sell the wool cartriges or liquid and add a $0.30 charging port and a $0.20 charging chip on a $0.10 PCB. The battery is already rechargeable!!
I’ve actually been collecting reusable capes to pull out the batteries and convert them into powerbanks, crazy these are bing tossed after a single charge. Some of the batteries are pretty big too!
Did you find any with actual 18650s? Those are most useful in “DIY powerbanks”. Just remember to add fuses, the chip could go short circuit!
UK just bans everything it seems lol
other than the fact that there are several things being banned in the UK lately, all in mainstream news… sure
Banning single use vapes is a good idea. There is no counterargument to this. They dont fill a gap in the market as reusable and refillable vapes already exist and work better. They produce a ridiculous amount of waste. That waste is terrible for the environment. People can’t be trusted to be responsible enough to dispose of them in a safe way.
Dont try to conflate this proposed ban with something else you are pissed about.
Long time vaper here, fuck these things. Fucking leds, pcbs, type c ports, lithium batteries, all packed in to a device intended to be entirely disposed of when the juice runs out. So wasteful.
I’m a long term vaper as well but I’m going to be honest I do get the appeal of the disposables. Ludicrous regulation has made proper vapes so ridiculously annoying to use for an average person that it’s no wonder people just turn to the easiest option.
The 2ml tank cap and having to mix your own nicotine are both annoying and impractical. There’s also been a marked decline in the quality of coils and the tanks themselves since that law came into affect, with no actual benefits.
I had to switch to an RDA tank because the terrible coils on offer now were costing me a fortune, I’d gone from using 1 every couple of weeks to having to change them every two days. I’ve tried tons of different tanks and coils but it seems like it’s just a fundamental design flaw, 2ml of juice just isn’t enough to keep the coils wet if you use a decent mod.
RDA tanks are fine if you work from home like I do but it leaks all over my handbag when I go anywhere, so if you don’t work at home it’s just not a good solution.
Just curious, are lithium batteries worse than other disposable batteries that end up in landfill? In know many are Nickle cadmium, but aren’t just as many ALSO lithium batteries?
(Here in Australia at least there are means of “safely” disposing of batteries, and nicotine vapes are in-theory not for sale).
The problem is there is no real infrastructure to recycle the stuff so it just ends up in landfills with the associated pollution from discarded batteries.
There are processes to recover raw materials from Li-Ion cells: freeze them to decrease electrolytic reactions, shred them and separate the bits mechanically (using computer vision) and chemically. Very expensive and risky.
Lithium batteries aren’t exactly great if they still hold a charge, they risk violent combustion if damaged/pierced.
The problems really occur when they end up in amongst trash heaps/recycling plants as they can ignite causing huge plastic/rubbish fires that smolder internally for days before suddenly going up.
IIRC there are other metals included in lithium batteries that you don’t want leaking into the ground water (lithium isn’t great, but heavy metals can be pretty awful)
Some places take the vapes, but afaik there is no consistent program, this is compounded by a lot of the people I see using these vapes are children/young teens, which means a lot of them don’t end up in the bin, but literally just thrown on the ground.
On top of that, lithium ion batteries aren’t designed as disposable batteries. In devices like vapes, they should be getting upwards of 400 charge cycles before being considered spent. Some get more, some get less, but in “disposable” vapes, they get one. It’s just horrifically wasteful!
Cheers for the thoughtful response. Producing large amounts of harmful waste seems to be a larger societal issue, not something specific to lithium batteries, but I can see the part about fires being of particular concern. I still find the demonization of vaping in particular to be a bit odd.
The other thing is that lithium is a finite, hard to get resource that we have a lot of use for, and typically not used in any other mass consumed disposable product.
So even aside from the above general issues with disposing lithium, disposable vapes are particularly wasteful, because people aren’t throwing out their phone battery every other day, for example.
I’m a long time vaper, it’s got me off the cigs, and I use a reusable tank because it’s what I’ve always used but it’s obviously better for the environment and cheaper.
I do support clamping down on disposables because of the waste and these ones seem to be the ones that get into the hands of kids.
However, the whole scare thing about ecigs has always looked like a massive diversion tactic when actual cigarettes are still on sale. I mean it won’t happen because it’s kerching for the government. But I see literally thousands more discarded cigarette butts than I do vapes round our way.
To be fair, discarding cigarette butts is less wasteful of resources than discarding single-use vapes though, isn’t it? Also aren’t cigarette butts 100% biodegradable and renewable nowadays? Edit: No, they’re not at all, they’re also bad for the environment. Clearly disposable vapes are individually more wasteful though
Clearly disposable vapes are individually more wasteful though
I do agree that disposable vapes are a horrible idea. But they’re equivalent to a large number of cigarettes so you can’t just say “bigger than a single butt therefore worse”. At least they’re recyclable in theory, if not often in practice.
This is not a defence of disposables. They’re a ridiculous thing, designed for impulse purchasing by children. Fully support a ban.
As an old fart. 53. I have to say. The number of cig butt’s is way lower then it was in the past.
Really nothing more then me stating an observation. But during the 80s. And into the 90s. Throwing butt’s on the road was just what folks did.
At least now most folks have the idea it is bad. So there is some notacible attempt to limit it.
As for vapes. I sorta agree. Its an easy visable attack point.
But like all disposable plastic. It needs to be the manufacturers who are held responsible more then the users. At least this seems to be doing that.
But we have plenty of plastic alternatives. It’s just the cost that stops corps using them. If disposable plastics as a whole are banned. Then the corps are forced to look for cheaper production methods. And to swap.
That said. I don’t smoke. (Did for a while way back)
Are the foam like filters in cig butt’s made from a plastic product. Like most other foam. Or is it biodegradable. I habe no idea. On phone atm. (Hence typos) So will do a search tonight.
