ECig Trash, Toxic Ash

As if vaping wasn't bad enough for other reasons, the physical devices themselves are an environmental nightmare. 

According to this AP story, the disposable versions, which contain small lithium batteries that are soldered in place, can't be recycled and are considered hazardous waste. U.S. users go through 12 million of them per month.

If mixed into the regular waste stream, the lithium batteries can catch fire, or the nicotine can get into sewers and waterways.

The EPA banned kid-oriented flavored cartridges for refillable vapes back in 2020, and since then the number of disposables sold has greatly increased. It was an unintended — but it seems to me foreseeable — consequence of the policy change. I don't understand why the flavors weren't banned altogether in 2020, if that was the intent of the change. 

Right now the disposable units end up in part of the waste stream where they're not supposed to or — if we're lucky — are taken to an industrial incinerator in Arkansas. But even in the best case scenario, each disposable cigarette represents a lot of wasted resources and remnant toxic ash for a few minutes of addictive pleasure.