Recently the UK banned disposable vapes and France outlawed vaping in parks and beach areas due to environmental concerns. Some people originally thought vapes would be better for the environmental, since people wouldn’t be tossing cigarette butts on the ground. But vaping presents its own environmental problems including toxic chemicals, increased plastic, and electronic waste. This article covers the impact of toxic chemicals on the environment.
At least five disposable e-cigarettes are being thrown away every second in the United States, amounting to 150 million devices per year.
Nicotine poisons wildlife
We all know the coil in your vape gives out way before you run out of juice. If you just toss your used vape on the ground, or dump the remaining juice down the drain/toilet the nicotine in the juice gets into the water system through the sewer system or by leaching into the ground. Residual nicotine can act as a poison to wildlife, disrupting animals’ reproductive systems and further impacting overall ecosystem health.
Because nicotine dissolves easily in water, it can eventually end up in a lakes, ponds and rivers — and poison the fish in them. Fish exposed to toxic levels of nicotine can develop muscle spasms, rigid fins, and loss of color. They may also die.
Just how toxic are nicotine and other chemicals in tobacco to fish? In a simple experiment, scientists put one smoked cigarette butt into water containing 2-week-old fathead minnows. Half the fish died within 96 hours–from one smoked cigarette butt – imagine how much damage your left over vape juice would do.
Check out this video about vapes and water:
Recycling
Most of us think the answer is “proper disposal” of a used vape – but they are really hard to recycle! The Truth Initiative asked a group of 15- to 24-year-olds how they disposed of vape products. Over 50% of respondents reported putting empty vapes either in the trash or in curbside recycling. A majority cited lack of clarity and convenience as barriers to proper disposal.
Vapes are made of a mix of materials — usually a combination of glass, metal, and plastic. This combination makes it difficult to separate out any single material that might be recyclable. For this reason alone, vaping products are not accepted in curbside recycling.
To find places that recycle disposable vapes near you, try Earth 911
Bottom Line
Using disposable vapes and caring about the environment seem incompatible – so maybe it’s time to quit? At HabitHalo we know its hard to cut your puffs – that’s why we developed the HabitHalo solution that combines an app on your phone with RipLok — a connected locking case for your vape. The phone app tracks your puffs and uses a proprietary algorithm plus your preferences to develop a custom reduction plan. The plan helps you gradually increase the time between your puffs until you are weaned off of your nicotine habit. The app sends your plan via Bluetooth to RipLok, then RipLok unlocks and re-locks your vape – restricting your ability to take a puff and keeping you on track.
Get the HabitHalo app today and pre-order RipLok for delivery this fall on Indigogo