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Sunshine (she/her)@lemmy.ca to Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.@slrpnk.netEnglish · 5 months ago

The UK Throws Away 1 Million Vapes Each Day, Causing ‘Environmental Nightmare’

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The UK Throws Away 1 Million Vapes Each Day, Causing ‘Environmental Nightmare’

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Sunshine (she/her)@lemmy.ca to Climate - truthful information about climate, related activism and politics.@slrpnk.netEnglish · 5 months ago
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The UK Throws Away 1 Million Vapes Each Day, Causing 'Environmental Nightmare'
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New research has found that most disposable vapes are being thrown away instead of recycled, causing environmental pollution.
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  • Lemming421@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Honestly, vapes are so new, disposable ones should never have been legalised.

    • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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      5 months ago

      These vapes been around for 20+ years, they have just become trendier now, maybe because they got smaller

      • Lemming421@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        We knew about the environment and recycling 20 years ago…

        • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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          5 months ago

          Only thing that changed is production started of single use, China is pumping these things out and everyone is eating them up as grey/black market imports

      • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Not single use ones.

        • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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          5 months ago

          That’s what I said below

  • ramsorge@discuss.online
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    5 months ago

    Just pass a law that anything intended to be disposable needs to be made with 100% biodegradable material. Selling refillable oil is obviously cleaner and cheaper to make.

    This is just profit over planet.

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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      5 months ago

      Make it so that brands need to accept electronic devices back for free.

      • ramsorge@discuss.online
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        5 months ago

        Or unlock them for Linux so we can keep using them after EOL.

        • 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚎𝚘𝚠@programming.dev
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          5 months ago

          I vape Arch btw

          • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
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            5 months ago

            Can it run doom

            • 𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚒𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝙼𝚎𝚘𝚠@programming.dev
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              5 months ago

              Sure

      • Anivia@feddit.org
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        5 months ago

        Already the case in Germany, yet everyone still just throws them away out of convenience

        • jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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          5 months ago

          deleted by creator

    • BigFig@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Then they lobby a law to define 100% biodegradable and the lobbyists successfully push for it to mean it will EVENTUALLY bio degrade*

      *In 1000 years

      • ramsorge@discuss.online
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        5 months ago

        Not enough dead billionaires.

    • then_three_more@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      It would need to be naturally biodegradable without leaving any kind of dangerous chemicals. A lot of so called biodegradable plastics can only actually be biodegraded in an industrial compostor.

      • ramsorge@discuss.online
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        5 months ago

        Sounds like we need things that aren’t disposable

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      As is tradition

  • rbn@sopuli.xyz
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    5 months ago

    As far as I know despite being a single-use item, these vapes mostly contain rechargable battery cells of type 18650. Even though they are probably rather cheap and low quality cells, they still have around 2300 mAh at 3.6 V current. This gives us 8250 mWh per cell. One million of them would be 8250 kWh, enough for 100-200 electric cars. Every day. In a full year that’s 3011250 kWh or around 3 gigawatt hours of storage capacity.

    3 gigawatt hours is the capacity of the number 1 biggest battery-based energy storage system in the world: https://www.energy-storage.news/moss-landing-worlds-biggest-battery-storage-project-is-now-3gwh-capacity/

    Tossed in the trash. Only from single use vapes. Every year. And only in the UK.

    I hope there’s no major flaw in my calculation but if it’s not, that’s really a crazy figure.

    • IzzyScissor@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I had an ex who collected them, wired them together and now uses the bundle to power an electric bus. It’s crazy that it just goes in the trash.

    • felixwhynot@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      These batteries are free! You can just take them!

      • Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net
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        5 months ago

        Related

        https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/11/disposable-vapes-from-a-music-festival-can-power-a-beefy-e-bike-20-miles/

    • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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      5 months ago

      Most single use contain lithium polymer packs, not 18650s, but yes

      • derpgon@programming.dev
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        5 months ago

        1000% this. 18650s are used in regular vapes, and they are definitely not cheap to be used in disposables.

    • DUMBASS@leminal.space
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      5 months ago

      I used to give my empty ones to my niece’s bf, he rips them apart and makes shit with them.

    • WamGams@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      The batteries on most of those cheap disposables are essentially done for by the time the juice runs out.

      By day 7 a full charge gets maybe 20-30 puffs.

      Without these products the market probably wouldn’t be as flooded with cheap rechargeable batteries that only last about 10 days.

  • Damage@feddit.it
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    5 months ago

    Humans are so stupid

    • felixwhynot@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I think we’re bad at choosing things that are inconvenient if the risk is abstract, but not necessarily stupid per se

  • BertramDitore@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    The UK has a population of just over 69 million.

    These numbers are legitimately mind-boggling, I’m having a hard time believing it:

    Thirteen vapes are discarded every second in the UK, adding up to more than a million each day.

  • kipo@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Does the UK have anti-smoking or anti-vaping campaigns, or did they ever? That seems like a lot of people are vaping.

    • Womble@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Smoking yes, the UK has the 2nd lowest rate of smoking in the EU (+UK obviously). There hasnt been any significant anti-vaping campaign I’m aware of, because there is a tension that despite it being bad for you its nowhere near as bad as smoking, so getting people off tobacco and onto vapes is a net benefit. Though there does seem to be a growing consensus that vapes have been too permissively regulated thus far and to righten rules around selling them.

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