I'm amazed there isn't more of an outcry against these things. I'm not an environmental activist, but even I'd feel wrong just throwing something like that away.
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
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did that in Australia - the problem is even worse now. Disposable vapes were a market response to banning and restricting pod vapes (where you can keep the base and just swap out the pod). Nicotine policy and policing has been a clusterf - not only are there wasteful disposable vapes everywhere, but a thriving black market that has lead to firebombings and murders.
Sounds like they didnt ban it properly. There aren't really nicotine junkies like heroin. So I suspect ban nicotine and slowly everyone stops using nicotine sources.
There aren't really alcohol or cannabis junkies like heroin either. That didn't make prohibition or the war on drugs successful.
Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
#43Many 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.
Go further. Every product must be returned to manufacturer at end of life.
Any items found by garbage program will be collected and returned to manufacturer at cost.
All items sold in country must be identifiable for this purpose. Importers are considered the manufacturers and must retrofit products.
Then we would be getting closer to capturing the total burden to society.
Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
#44I've just started a Salvage Pile in my workshop. Laser printer with fax modem was the first for excision and harvest. I could feel the addiction take hold before the last of the plastic shell was tossed into the refuse bin. The stepper motors alone! I have a huge old microwave on the blocks next. After that a series of small odd ball electronic toys and a few early LED bulbs. If I ever come across a vape, I'm sure it…
With regards to the microwave, here’s a token “please safely discharge and double check the cap” comment! With regards to vapes, just look on the ground near a sidewalk. I find like 3 or 4 big depleted vapes a day in a US urban area. Closer to 15 or 20 in greater London in the UK.
As a second regards the microwave, depending on the age, please be extremely careful about the magnetron the insulators on which could contain beryllium oxide, which can kill you.
There are a lot of fun parts inside microwaves (a personal favorite is the high-torque-low-speed-line-voltage motor, which I use to make creepy Halloween decorations) but the caps, transformer, and magnetron are all useful for somewhat... more dangerous... pursuits.
Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
The reason disposables are so popular in the US is the FDA banned any flavored cartridges, which doesn't include disposables. The immense battery waste is a direct result of a relatively new law.
> FDA banned any flavored cartridges, which doesn't include disposables Wait, what? Where's the sense in that?
If true I wonder if that has to do with this incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%932020_vaping_lung_...
Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
#46We really need to ban these things.
No, just let the scavengers continue collecting and reusing them.
Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
#47"I Powered My House Using 500 Disposable vapes" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy-wFixuRVU
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Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do we need to ban these? I'm not trying to be contrarian, but why do some people appear to be for banning tobacco but not alcohol? I don't claim to have all the answers or even strong opinions, but if your going to ban one recreational drug with negative externalities you should ban them all. I'd much rather hear people's opinions then ask AI.
I think broadly prohibition didn't work but smoking bans do. Where "work" means fewer people smoke and passive smoke.
Prohibition works to stop some people.
It doesn't stop addicts from craving and it doesn't curb the appeal of the product. People who think tobacco/nicotine bans would work are people who think they don't have any positive effect associated with them.
People don't smoke because the evil cigarette companies tricked them and now they are addicted. It's a drug, it feels good to do it.
A tobacco/nicotine ban will end up exactly like aby other recreational drug prohibition.
Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
#49Some of the COVID test kits that were popular a few years ago(!) were even more complex.
"One man's trash is another man's treasure."
Re: There's a ridiculous amount of tech in a disposable vape
#50There's a ridiculous amount of tech in the DNA and cellular machinery of a single bacterium.
When you poo though it doesnt require landfill and relatively less toxic.