60

For years, the debate surrounding vaping largely centered on its risks for high school and middle school students enticed by flavors like gummy bear, lemonade and watermelon.

But the recent shift toward e-cigarettes that can’t be refilled has created a new environmental dilemma. The devices, which contain nicotine, lithium and other metals, cannot be reused or recycled. Under federal environmental law, they also aren’t supposed to go in the trash.

U.S. teens and adults are buying roughly 12 million disposable vapes per month. With little federal guidance, local officials are finding their own ways to dispose of e-cigarettes collected from schools, colleges, vape shops and other sites.

all 18 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] who8mydamnoreos@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

Deposits work for my milk bottles they could work for vapes if you made them high enough. Also another barrier to kids accessing them if they have to pay a deposit every time.

[-] Sheik@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

Should just ban disposable vapes imo. They only get people into vaping, they don’t help quitting smoking cigarettes better that reusable vapes.

[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That'd be great except the FDA decimated the market outside of disposables. I now only have 1-2 shops in my (250k pop.) city selling juice, coils, mods, and batteries all with pretty limited selection and wildly high prices, where previously I could order from one of hundreds of companies online at dirt cheap prices. Most corner stores still have a full selection of cigarettes and disposables though.

[-] Melkath@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Prohibition. Does. Not. Work.

[-] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

The ban is not on vaping, just disposable vapes. Anyone who wants to vape can still get a regular one.

[-] Sheik@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

It’s not prohibition, it’s regulation.

[-] who8mydamnoreos@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

People hate bans on things though; the hassle of being forced to properly dispose of the devices would be enough discouragement to lessen the amount of providers.

[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago

I can't see this working with disposables as you'd have people bringing in devices of unknown condition and piling them into a bin full of lithium batteries. That's how you wind up burning your store down.

[-] who8mydamnoreos@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Yes the disposal would be a hassle but that is the point. It would discourage businesses from carrying the devices if they had to handle returning them as well.

[-] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 3 points 1 year ago

It's not so much of a hassle as it is a danger and I don't think places like Circle K or your local corner store should be penalized for selling a perfectly legal product nor should their untrained employees be forced to handle potentially dangerous materials. If anything, the manufacturers of these products should be penalized and forced to come up with a solution to the problem.

[-] Kache@lemm.ee 12 points 1 year ago

Sounds like an externality that should be paid for as these things are manufactured

[-] Bell@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Or indeed every thing that's manufactured

[-] girlfreddy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Maybe the gov't should set up regulations before allowing sales.

But that would make sense.

[-] WoahWoah@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

I'll tell you what happens to them: they get thrown in the trash. If we're lucky. These things are littered everywhere. Put a $2 deposit on each one and set up places to return them for the deposit return. They're disgusting. If that's not enough, increase the deposit. If people don't like it, at least it will drive them to use those stupid looking ones that look like someone's fellating a walkie-talkie.

[-] Metacortechs@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I call mine a robot dick, thank you very much.

[-] LiveLM@lemmy.zip 8 points 1 year ago

Man, disposable vapes are such an awful trend, I wish they were banned.
Make people buy a proper vape device and their own refills, ban those nasty e-waste fuckers already

[-] PaupersSerenade@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't have a solution for this. I vape, and have done for a while. It's just easier, cheaper, and nicer than smoking a stick. I've stuck with Smok products for the majority of it, and those use refillable tanks. Tanks were how it was always done, but now when I take a 'smoke' break, most of the adults have those stupid pods. I used one as a stop gap when my main device got lost on a trip and its corpse is still sitting on my desk. /rant

this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2023
60 points (96.9% liked)

News

23275 readers
3381 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS