Vapes, chargers, and other ‘invisible’ e-waste are a 9-million-ton problem

www.theverge.com

Vapes, chargers, and other “invisible” e-waste are a 9-million-ton problem

[ sourced from The Verge

Technology @lemmy.world

L4sBot @lemmy.world

BOT

2y ago

Vapes, chargers, and other “invisible” e-waste are a 9-million-ton problem.

www.theverge.com /2023/10/11/23912751/vapes-chargers-invisible-ewaste-recycling

5 comments

I don’t understand why people don’t just get mods. It’s cheaper, better quality, controllable, and doesn’t create nearly as much waste.
I used to go through at least 5 dispos a month at $12-18 each. Now, a $20 bottle of juice can last me at least a month and a half, and coils are like $5 a pop.
- Exactly. Like, we went from those BLU disposables, largely to replaceable mods. But then some time in the past, like, three years it all went backwards to mod-sized disposables. Like…what. Why. There’s no way it’s cheaper for the company.
  
  Well, after the govt arbitrarily killed the pod system, they needed another easily accessible system to get new customers (see: teens and college kids) on board…
  Mods have a much higher starting cost, which isn’t very appealing to someone who doesn’t already smoke or vape.
I wouldn’t call this an invisible problem. Just an ignored problem.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Invisible” e-waste — from disposable vapes to toys and tangles of cables — is piling up and robbing supply chains of valuable materials.
Altogether, vapes and other small consumer items considered “invisible” weigh in at 9 billion kilograms (9 million metric tons) a year.
That’s like half a million dump trucks worth of electric toothbrushes, ugly holiday sweaters adorned with LEDs, drones, and other small electronics.
While discarded appliances and computers have posed problems for decades, the new analysis shines a light on often overlooked trends that have grown into a global mess.
Vapes (like other rechargeable devices) that wind up in the trash are a waste of lithium, a key battery mineral that the world is going to need a lot of to transition to cleaner energy and transportation.
“Millions of electronic cigarettes are being thrown away in a dustbin every single week ... it’s an issue of great concern,” WEEE Forum director-general Pascal Leroy said in the press briefing.
The original article contains 515 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 69%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!