Only Good Vibes: Vape Recycling in NYC

Only good vibes: Vape recycling in NYC

‘A horse, a mule, and a donkey walk into a bar…’ However, April 1^st is behind us, and we’re very close to May 31^st a.k.a. World No Tobacco Day. There’s a certain urgency about this date – for sure not the urgency of bursting into laughter – so… excuse the misunderstanding and the misspelling. I meant to say…“only good vapes!”

Hence, let’s switch from classical jokes to brainstorming for viable solutions, and then make them stay by turning them into classical, long-standing ways of taming the current environmental vape crisis.

“A vapes-policy activist, a grassroots vapes-recycler, and a vapes-recycling-non-profit co-founder walk into a park,” sounds much better, in a time when 4.5 vapes are thrown away per second in the US  (or over 500 tons in 2022, only in the New York landfills!)

True story; and this group is about to walk into a Brooklyn park, always packed with a young crowd (a demographic familiar with e-cigarettes), and set up a table promoting proper vape disposal, on May 31st.

You see, these devices are made of metal, plastic, lithium-ion batteries, and even when empty, they still contain toxic traces of nicotine. Regardless of their legal status in any country or state, e-cigs will continue flooding the market, and until more people decide to quit, vapers should have the option of recycling them correctly with ease.

The policy activist spent a few years trying to comprehend when we’ll have an official collection and recycling method in place—the ashtrays of the 2020s. He spoke to politicians, teachers, researchers, school principals, non-profits, and city officials, but he didn’t really reach a conclusion. Instead, he got burned out.

The grassroots vapes-recycler engaged a few thousand users since 2022 and dropped at recycling facilities over 350 pounds of vapes; also got burned out. She feels like a girl with a lemonade stand – holding the spot for an organized recycling system to take over. In fact, a hefty 350-pound barrel of ‘lemonade,’ but still a joke compared to the 500 tons annual usage in NYC…

In other words, they’re both waiting for the day when vape pen recycling will be accessible in all of NYC and everywhere else!

In true Venn diagram style, the work of the vapes-recycling non-profit is a combination of what the other two have been advocating for! Indeed, in the past few years, the Vape Waste Project launched a pilot program where people from all over the US mailed their used e-cigarettes at no cost. This small non-profit has financed (through donations and partnerships) the proper recycling of all parts included in each vape! 

The amazing news is that they are very serious about turning this formula into mainstream vapes recycling nationwide, and hopefully, more companies will follow suit!

Until then, let’s go over a few fun & not-so-fun e-cigarette facts!

If you decide to collect your empty vapes to dispose of them correctly, please put them on a scale, and then use the calculator at the bottom of this page to understand the positive impact of your gesture. And by the way, since 4.5 vapes per second go to landfills, that makes 270 per minute, 16,200 per hour, or 388,000 per day. That is 8536 pounds of lithium going to landfills daily. It looks like one EV battery contains between 17 and 138 pounds of Lithium, so I’ll let you do the math…

Some (both vapers and non-vapers) criticize electric vehicles, questioning what happens to each battery after years of usage. Meanwhile, disposable e-cigarettes are the elephant in the room – also weight-wise! We’re definitely past tiny mules and donkeys, and this is true horsepower going to trash every day! To make things worse, the waste is toxic…

While doing grassroots recycling in the past three years, I encountered some moving outcomes. Let’s call them “happy news.” Naturally, the best way to support vapes recycling as a vaper is… to stop vaping. Problem solved! The good news is that when you collect your used e-cigarettes in a transparent container, such as a jar, you may feel deceived at their sight, and finally quit easily… because you truly want it! (Genuine intention paves the way to smooth action.)

The other good news is that vapers want and are ready to do the right eco-thing. Over three months, in the summer of ‘22, a temporary collection box in a building lobby got 13 vapes in, as people weren’t used to it. The first business to ever request a steady collection box was a smoke shop – customers loved it, and so do patrons who go out at bars.

Starting in January ‘24, one box collected 210 pounds in 16 months! The common denominator here is compassionate love for Earth – it inspires recycling, while compassionate self-love is key for quitting any form of tobacco. Add this to genuine intention, and you’re on your way to successfully breaking the habit – real advice from this former cigarette addict…

Till then, let’s stop throwing vapes in the regular trash cans; and stop littering, as well. “Good vapes go to recycling when they’re dead.” Bet “Heaven” just crossed your mind, and if so, you were close – since many popular disposable brands taking over Earth come from a multi-billion company called… Heaven Gifts! Quite an oxymoron! 

However, you’d be surprised – even some littered vapes hide a silver lining, since picking up the ones seen in this video inspired the grassroots initiative just mentioned, and a few other good eco-things – stories for another time.

Meanwhile, don’t let the good info stop at you! Vaper or not, please share this article. The vapes disposed of incorrectly affect us all, but the good news is we’re getting closer to a better reality where ‘vape-ashtrays’ are the norm!