Disposable vapes are indefensible. Many, or maybe most, of them contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but manufacturers prefer to sell new ones.
To make a point about how wasteful this practice is—and to also make a pretty rad project and video—Chris Doel took 130 disposable vape batteries (the bigger “3,500 puff” types with model 20400 cells) found littered at a music festival and converted them into a 48-volt, 1,500-watt e-bike battery, one that powered an e-bike with almost no pedaling more than 20 miles. You can see the whole build and watch Doel zoom along trails on his YouTube video.
On the other hand, I think cigarette butts are also quite polluting the environment too. So I am not sure what’s worse.
They make vape cartridges that are used with a reusable battery. If disposable vapes were banned, they would become the more common option which is definitely better.
Does it matter which is worse when we can take care of both problems?
No one ever talks about stopping cigarettes from being filtered. It’s not as if the filter actually makes cigarettes safe. They just make them easier on your lungs as you smoke and you’re less likely to get bits of tobacco in your mouth. Maybe that shouldn’t be a thing?
Filters could be made biodegradable. Batteries? Probably but not in our lifetime.
Or they could just not be made at all.