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Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

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Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#51
post #50
post #26

The amount of e-waste in general is truly nauseating. My employer just cleaned 30 years of “junk” out of our in house IT “tech shop” and the number of working but obsolete computers that went out (many simply because they couldn’t support Windows 11) is sickening to me. The amount of carbon generated from the mining activities, steel production, etc. that went into producing “obsolete” computers has to absolutely dwa…

Isn't a lot of e-waste recyclable?

In some cases but the economics need to be improved. Companies don’t have to pay for the externalities so it’s often cheaper to build new things instead of recycling, but if that shifted we’d see a lot more capacity arise.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#52
post #38
post #26

The amount of e-waste in general is truly nauseating. My employer just cleaned 30 years of “junk” out of our in house IT “tech shop” and the number of working but obsolete computers that went out (many simply because they couldn’t support Windows 11) is sickening to me. The amount of carbon generated from the mining activities, steel production, etc. that went into producing “obsolete” computers has to absolutely dwa…

"We could replace so many data centers with old desktops." But I assume for way more energy costs? And the manual labour to sort out the different mainboards and make everything interoperable is not free either. But I guess it means lots of opportunity for unconventional low costs projects to scramble things together. Win 10 got another year of support, but I assume next year, even more computers will be avaiable qui…

GP already replied in a sibling comment, so all I can add is another article about this in case you want to read more about it with concrete numbers: https://wimvanderbauwhede.codeberg.page/articles/frugal-comp...

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#53
post #48
post #26

The amount of e-waste in general is truly nauseating. My employer just cleaned 30 years of “junk” out of our in house IT “tech shop” and the number of working but obsolete computers that went out (many simply because they couldn’t support Windows 11) is sickening to me. The amount of carbon generated from the mining activities, steel production, etc. that went into producing “obsolete” computers has to absolutely dwa…

Well luckily according to Bill Gates the climate is not really an issue anymore [1]: > There’s a doomsday view of climate change that goes like this: > In a few decades, cataclysmic climate change will decimate civilization. The evidence is all around us—just look at all the heat waves and storms caused by rising global temperatures. Nothing matters more than limiting the rise in temperature. > Fortunately for all of…

Please also cite where he allegedly said that it's a doomsday event before you put up the strawman and debunk it with "look even this guy changed his mind"

Edit: The only concrete thing I've found in trying to seek through your tedious video links for 10 minutes (idk why I'm spending my time on this but here we are) is the claim that, instead of living healthily, we'd be "constantly dealing with the human and financial crises at a historic scale". That's in line with the text you've quoted: it'll not be the end of all humans but it's a serious consequence for all of us (but not evenly distributed, even if it affects everyone to some degree)

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#54
post #35

The thought that disposable vapes are still not forbidden in my country (EU) is making me sick.

My reading of the WEEE directive is that no electrical equipment can be "disposable", it should all be recyclable and recycled. Actual enforcement of this is non-existent. If you see a "disposable" vape discarded in the street, look for the crossed out bin logo.

> no electrical equipment can be "disposable", it should all be recyclable

Disposable paper wrappers can be recycled. Is there no disposable paper anymore now?

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#55
post #22

The thought that disposable vapes are still not forbidden in my country (EU) is making me sick.

From what I know the law is passed already. And they will become illegal end of 2026.

In the EU/EEA or where?

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#56
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current building regulations in the UK are moving towards outside storage of batteries now because of NMC's having a high tendency to combust. The battery management systems do detect a lot of issues, thermal and shorts but at some point I think government is going to force these to be on the outside of houses. The right answer is LifePO4 for home storage, does not combust and has good enough density.

Agreed. I think that about ten years out, when solid state batteries are widely available, lithium-ion batteries bigger than laptop-sized will be prohibited.

They seem to be 10 years out forever.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#57
post #48
post #26

The amount of e-waste in general is truly nauseating. My employer just cleaned 30 years of “junk” out of our in house IT “tech shop” and the number of working but obsolete computers that went out (many simply because they couldn’t support Windows 11) is sickening to me. The amount of carbon generated from the mining activities, steel production, etc. that went into producing “obsolete” computers has to absolutely dwa…

Well luckily according to Bill Gates the climate is not really an issue anymore [1]: > There’s a doomsday view of climate change that goes like this: > In a few decades, cataclysmic climate change will decimate civilization. The evidence is all around us—just look at all the heat waves and storms caused by rising global temperatures. Nothing matters more than limiting the rise in temperature. > Fortunately for all of…

There is a huge amount of space between "not really an issue" and "it will not lead to humanity’s demise".

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#59
post #50
post #26

The amount of e-waste in general is truly nauseating. My employer just cleaned 30 years of “junk” out of our in house IT “tech shop” and the number of working but obsolete computers that went out (many simply because they couldn’t support Windows 11) is sickening to me. The amount of carbon generated from the mining activities, steel production, etc. that went into producing “obsolete” computers has to absolutely dwa…

Isn't a lot of e-waste recyclable?

recycling is not energy neutral and recyclable doesn't mean it gets recycled.

Re: Building a 2.5kWh battery from disposable vapes to power my workshop [video]

#60
post #35

The thought that disposable vapes are still not forbidden in my country (EU) is making me sick.

My reading of the WEEE directive is that no electrical equipment can be "disposable", it should all be recyclable and recycled. Actual enforcement of this is non-existent. If you see a "disposable" vape discarded in the street, look for the crossed out bin logo.

There is a massive gulf between "be recyclable" and actually being recycled.

Depending on energy and cost intensive recycling, which can only ever capture a percentage of the waste, is silly. This kind of thing needs to be stopped at the source.

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