Environmental Impact of Disposables
An environmentalist has highlighted the damage caused to rivers and harm to animals from vape products being dumped instead of recycled
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by Dave Cross
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At the beginning of the year, Andrej Kuttruf, CEO of vape company Evapo, spoke about how the company engages with a carbon offset scheme that involves planting a tree for every four disposables sold. Also, Evapo encourages regular customers to switch up to vape products with a reduced environmental impact. Welcome moves, but what about the actions of consumers?
Concerns about the single use plastics contained in disposable vapes was sufficient for the Department for Environmental Food & Rural Affairs’ (DEFRA) to issue a call for evidence as part of a consultation process in January. DEFRA was set to release the findings of the evidence gathering exercise and detail its next steps but turmoil in government has led to delays in progress.
Despite some manufacturers and retailers offering their own recycling schemes, Riot Labs’ net negative carbon footprint QBAR a case in point, users appear to be reluctant to take advantage of these opportunities when they want to get rid of their disposable vapes.
“I've been doing litter picks for years, but recently there has just been a mega-increase in the number of discarded vapes, especially after a Friday or Saturday night,” Tony Harwood told local journalists. “Vaping has become a part of going out for many youngsters. Virtually everyone in the pubs and clubs now seems to be sucking on a disposable vape - the revellers, the staff and the DJs.”
With just 0.15 grams of lithium contained in a disposable vape battery, it doesn’t sound like throwing the device into a bin is a big deal – but British vapers currently throw away 3 million disposables per week. Lithium is rare, expensive and in high demand, it could be recovered for future battery uses.
It is currently estimated that in the region of 10 tonnes of lithium ends up in landfill sites which is sufficient to manufacture over a thousand electric vehicle batteries.
Professor Mark Miodownik commented: “I don't think people realise that when they throw away a vape they are throwing away electronics and large amount of lithium, which is absolutely essential to fuel the green economy and move away from fossil fuels.”
Tony Harwood says that he has found disposables everywhere, including floating in local rivers. He said there is an impact on the environment and animal welfare.
“Foxes can be attracted to the discarded vapes. The fruit and saliva odour exuded by discarded vapes attracts dogs and foxes which search them out and chew them. The rubber caps, which are also widely discarded, are small enough to block the airways of unfortunate animals.”
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Photo by Hello I'm Nik on Unsplash, cropped for banner image
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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