VAPE-PENS Public Service announcement

Описание: Disposable Vape pens are ...NOT!
In Just 4 months in 2025 on a 2 mile stretch of 2 lane, I found over a dozen discarded Vape pens. Great for me, I'll use the batteries in E-projects. BAD for the environment and especially for anyone (like kids) who sees one and picks it up.
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VAPE Pens
In just a couple of weeks, in July 2025, on the 2-mile stretch of CT RTE 37 North of New Fairfield, we found these 10 “vape pens” on the side of the road. Most of them still work. One of them still has 100% battery capacity and 60% of its original “e” fluid load. And when we say “on the side of the road” we mean on the shoulder, not thrown into the high grass or woods.

These vaping devices are designated as “disposable”, but throwing them out a car window is NOT the proper way to do so. And there are a number of good reasons for that:

1. It is littering
2. They contain Lithium batteries. Two, that came apart from the impact, had batteries rated at 1000 mAh(milliAmpere hours} minimum. We disassembled and tested these and they both could be recharged and discharged further. The 20000 puff models are rated by the manufacturer to have about the same capacity (950 mAh) and 3 out of 5 had not reached their “puff” limit and could also be charged to 100% capacity.
Lithium ion batteries are a FIRE HAZARD!.
3. Most of the units still had E-liquid in them, one had 60% of its original nicotine capacity. Just to have a frame of reference, the average tobacco cigarette lasts perhaps a maximum of 20 “puffs”. So a 20,000 puff unit is roughly the equivalent of 1,000 cigarettes. So note that these are on the side of the road easily visible to anyone walking along that road- including children and young adults.

You can find out more about them here: https://tinyurl.com/2d9h5vr5
Basically: those “vapes” contain 20ml of 5% Nicotine solution and retail for about $20 each. That is probably about a gram of pure nicotine. The LD50 for nicotine is officially .36mg/lb of body weight, so technically that much nicotine(if they could keep it down) might kill 7 of 14 average (200lb) men.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3...

Of course it is against the law to litter, but these are hazardous materials! There a FEDERAL laws about e-wasthttps://tinyurl.com/5a8d2jrve and hazardous waste(RCRA P075, D001 and D003), but they are unlikely to be enforced by the EPA on our local roads .
Some vape shops may take back the units, but obviously, the ones we recovered were not going that way, and users are unlikely to hold their “used” vape pens for the next recycling even in town.

And there is an even bigger issue- scarce resources. Right now, in order to help cut down on our nations dependence on foreign sources for rare earths and lithium in particular, and to reduce the hazards associated with used Lithium batteries, we are in a race to build specialized recycling plants . But most these plants are NOT on line yet. https://tinyurl.com/5a8d2jrv

So basically we need a way to get as many of these “disposables” into the recycling stream and off the roads and roadsides.
The at-hand solution, is evident from the other items found on our roadsides: beverage containers (cans , bottles, and in particular, “nibs”). There needs to be a deposit charge for vape pens and a recycling system to go with it. At a $20 selling price, $5 sounds about right to me, but the matter probably needs some cost benefit analysis.

Oh! and more:
4...Germs! Think about kids picking these up. Especially in the summer months, we’ve seen dozens of teens wlaking or biking on the road into town.
5. I know someone in the rec-cannabis industry in MA. And when I mentioned this situation, they reminded me that some vape pens can be used for that product, AND that there are apparently instructions on the interweb on how to reload these disposables with THC.