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There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

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Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#141

Post by array_key_first »

Domenic_S wrote: post #88
throw101010 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Switzerland has something like this for "eWaste", it's called the ARC [1] (Advance Recycling Contribution). For any electronic device you purchase a small tax is collected and used for the recycling and collection of the future waste it will generate. The collection mandatorily happens in the shops that sell electronic devices, you don't have to return them to the exact store where it was purchased, as long as they s…

We have it in California, just for monitors for some reason, but on Jan 1 a new law covering battery-embedded devices took effect. That new one specifically doesn't tax vapes (???) https://cdtfa.ca.gov/taxes-and-fees/covered-electronic-waste...

Big tobacco strikes again!

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#142

Post by teiferer »

jaggederest wrote: post #5
smashed wrote: post #3

Many countries have deposits for single use bottles/cans but an electronic device with a lipo battery is seen as perfectly fine to throw away. These things should have 100 times the deposit amount of a can of soda with mandatory requirements for retailers to take the 'empties' back.

Why stop there? I think more or less every non-durable product manufacturer (say, lifespan less than 5 years) should be required to take the product back at end of life and dispose of it properly. Trash is an enormous externality. I'm talking about plastic clamshells, container lids, "disposable" storage containers, the lot.

"Why stop there" is often a reason why nothing gets done. Why do small if you can go big right away? Because going big right away is costly (in social cost, in convincing, in how much people need to change behavior, ...) and that prevents people from doing it in the first place because the threshold is high. Apathy is the result. Better to take a small step first, then get used to the measure / the cost, then have a next phase where you do more.

Everybody makes fun of paper straws. Or they made fun of wind power when it was barely 0.1% of energy production. Why not immediately demand 20 years ago that all single use plastic is banned? Or that only wind and solar are allowed? Because the step is too big, it would not be accepted. You need to take one step at a time.

That's even a viable strategy against procrastination. There is this big daunting task. So much to do! Oh my, better scroll a little tiktok first. No, just take a small first step of the task. Very small, no big commitment. Then maybe do some tiktok, but the little first step won't be too much. Result is, you have an immediate sense of accomplishment and actually made progress, maybe even stay hooked with more steps of the ultimately big task.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#143

Post by lostlogin »

loeg wrote: post #103
lostlogin wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly all the plastic humans have made still exists. The great garbage patch in the Pacific is growing fast. The plastic is ending up in everything. We need to do better. Make less waste. Use less plastic.

> Nearly all the plastic humans have made still exists. And it just doesn't matter. It's a tiny amount of mass / volume. > The great garbage patch in the Pacific is growing fast. Ocean plastics are almost entirely a consequence of (particularly Indonesian) fishing net waste, not Western consumer products disposed of in managed landfills. The "great garbage patch" is also very much overstating the scale of the problem…

> And it just doesn't matter. It's a tiny amount of mass / volume.

Are you sure? It’s getting into food. We are eating it and drinking it, and it’s getting more prevalent.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#144

Post by dyauspitr »

jaggederest wrote: post #5
smashed wrote: post #3

Many countries have deposits for single use bottles/cans but an electronic device with a lipo battery is seen as perfectly fine to throw away. These things should have 100 times the deposit amount of a can of soda with mandatory requirements for retailers to take the 'empties' back.

Why stop there? I think more or less every non-durable product manufacturer (say, lifespan less than 5 years) should be required to take the product back at end of life and dispose of it properly. Trash is an enormous externality. I'm talking about plastic clamshells, container lids, "disposable" storage containers, the lot.

Yes let’s burden any fledging company with the added bureaucracy of having to set up trash collection, disposal and recycling.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#146

Post by teiferer »

tomcam wrote: post #75
hammock wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> more or less every non-durable product manufacturer (say, lifespan less than 5 years) should be required to take the product back at end of life and dispose of it properly Yeah, we had that. Glass milk bottles and coke bottles and bulk goods sold out of barrels by the lb rather than in plastic bags. But then plastic took off and soon after Big Sugar paid a PR/lobbying firm to run a campaign with a fake Indian cryin…

It was amazing being a kid back then because you could earn some decent coin returning bottles

Nowadays the homeless or other less-than-living-wage earners do that for us. You can see them everywhere in cities all over north america and europe if you pay attention.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#147

Post by aaronblohowiak »

defrost wrote: post #138
bloppe wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All petroleum products come from the fossilized remains of the first trees to evolve lignin, which was tough and durable enough to allow trees to grow taller, but also too tough and durable for any other living things to decompose it. At the time, fallen trees would not rot, and the resulting buildup of wood all over the place caused all sorts of ecological problems. Many of those trees ended up buried deep undergrou…

You are boldly and confidently at odds with the usual explanations of the formation of oil: * https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Oil_formation * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum these other sources all assert that The origin of fossil fuels is the anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, particularly planktons and algae.

I think they are conflating Carboniferous Period / white rot slowing _coal_ formation with Oil formation.

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#148

Post by rob74 »

tombert wrote: post #121
GeertB wrote: post #72

For these devices the microcontroller needs to be super cheap. Microcontrollers like the Puya PY32 Series (e.g., PY32C642, PY32F002/F030) can cost in the $0.02 - $0.05 range for the kind of many-million volumes applicable for disposable vapes. These are 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 MCUs, running at a 24 MHz clock or similar, some with 24 KB of ROM and maybe 3 KB of RAM! To put into context: this is 3x the ROM/RAM of the ZX81…

What a world we live in; we have gotten to a point where computers are so small and cheap that they can literally be “disposable”. It’s beautiful, I love it.

For my part, I hate anything explicitly labeled "disposable". As the author writes, you're supposed to recycle it, but how many people will do that if it has "disposable" written on it? Even worse, if it was truly disposable they could use a non-rechargeable battery, but because they have to keep up the pretense of it being reusable, they have to include a rechargeable battery with more dodgy chemistry that probably shouldn't end up in a landfill...

Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape

#149

Post by lostlogin »

bloppe wrote: post #129
lostlogin wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m reading ‘The World Without Us’ by Alan’s Weisman. Last thread like this had someone recommend it (thanks!). Every bit of plastic humans have made still exits, bar a small amount we have burnt. That’s concerning.

All petroleum products come from the fossilized remains of the first trees to evolve lignin, which was tough and durable enough to allow trees to grow taller, but also too tough and durable for any other living things to decompose it. At the time, fallen trees would not rot, and the resulting buildup of wood all over the place caused all sorts of ecological problems. Many of those trees ended up buried deep undergrou…

> It stands to reason that microbes will eventually evolve the means to digest it and make use of this abundant, under-used energy source. In fact, some already have [1], but it's still early days.

That’s a hell of a way to kick the can down the road.

I don’t have sea views, but if I wait, sea views are coming.

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