Posted by nithinj 10/25/2024
The e-waste involved in that sub-industry must be absolutely horrifying. Tens of millions of tiny little batteries, surrounded in plastic, lingering quantities of nicotine-rich liquids…
Glad this is happening.
I’ll take the inconvenience on the chin lol
The only reason I had to use disposables was that I couldn't get replacement coils & nicotine juice for several months. They can't use traditional shippers, and the services they use vary wildly in quality; I probably still have a shipment gathering dust in a storage warehouse after several failed delivery attempts. For anyone trying to quit smoking, my best advice would be to go to a vape store that has a lot of custom vape equipment and not just peddling disposables. They should be able to tell how much nicotine salt / freebase liquid you should use given your current smoking habits and goals for quitting.
In the end it was Allen Carr’s book that got me off them, and it was surprisingly easy.
The author died in 2006 so I wouldn’t even feel too bad about pirating it, I’m quite sure he wouldn’t mind.
I think the combination of additives in cigs is what makes them so hard to quit. I have quit various forms of pure nicotine with no withdrawals over the years, and treat it a bit like caffeine -- a stimulant that I use for a few months at a time before cycling off.
The only time I've _ever_ desperately craved a nicotine product was after 2-3 days of smoking cigarettes. When getting on a near-day-long flight, the whole time back I was thinking "wow, it would be great to have a cigarette right now" every 5-10 minutes.
But agreed on lung health with vaping. Also, my whole upper respiratory tract was in shambles. My throat was so dry, and it made me get sick constantly.
Imagine how much adulteration goes on, especially with bargain basement liquors and beers. Surely, pure ethanol is not our lone enemy in this fight.
As to additives, I’m sure certain ones contribute their own negative effects, sodium benzoate and tartrazine for example, but in that regard it’s the same situation as the food industry.
edit: This discussion is really bumming me out; quitting feels hopeless when we're preyed upon like this.
(Of course, I might be wrong, since it's been nearly a decade since I paid attention to the vape scene)
We had in the UK the sugar tax which was an effective ban on added sugar in soft drinks - you can hardly buy any drink without artificial sweeteners now, all of the old formulations were taken off the market because they were uneconomical. However, it never prior received attention as a ban, it was always described as just a "tax".
https://ash.org.uk/uploads/Smoking-Statistics-Fact-Sheet.pdf... https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tobacco-bulletin/hi...
Wouldn't be surprised to find out they smoke more than they used to with it being less scarce.
Simply, we should charge for negative externalities (not only for vapes) and let people decide what's valuable to them.
Tax is one big pool of money and I doubt the money will be used to fix the issues created.
A similar idea, carbon taxes and carbon credits trading seemed politically dead at least in my country even though it is a fantastic idea.
Edit: what might work is a 5-10 British pound ransom, released on return of the disposible to a recycling centre. Give the used devices free to a reclaiming merchant that operates out of the same country.
If batteries are a waste issue they should be more expensive till we as society feel we are adequately compensated for the externality created. We shouldn't pick and choose what use cases are valid for others. Everyone has different circumstances and preferences.
The human cost of making them doesn't look great either...
The earth is pretty big, and vape batteries are tiny, and we keep finding substitutes.
I'm all for reducing waste, but it seems unlikely we'll run out of metals in our lifetimes.
Keep in mind, things keep getting more efficient, and rich nations are finally tending toward using LESS per capita.
Sure, the poor nations might eventually become rich and the global population has not yet peeked, but there's no reason to assume our materials usage will grow exponentially forever.
And, even if you assumed we were going to run out of whatever is in these tiny vape pens - the percentage of all usage going to tiny applications like this is a rounding error. It's not what you would attack if you really wanted to move the needle.
You'd probably try to reduce the number of people buying new cars, for example.
Is the key here. We need to think beyond our lifetimes. We should be treating the earth like we're going to live on it for (tens or hundreds of) thousands of years, because I sure as shit hope we (meaning humans) are going to.
Yes, reducing creation of cars would certainly have a much bigger impact, and should be done. But it's also a lot harder than dealing with vapes.
Anyway, as far as I understand it, the main reason this is happening isn't happening to reduce waste, it's happening to stop a rise in nicotine consumption in children. Preventing waste is more of a nice side effect.
The joke I always like to make is that in the US everything is legal unless the government legislates to say you can't, in Europe everything is illegal unless the government legislates to say you can. :D
Guess where the US got that from? Yes, the UK, and it still applies.
-Freedom of expression (can't be arrested for social media posts, can't easily get sued into the ground for libel[0])
-Right to bear arms (technically legal for citizens to organize their own militant force, though often discouraged)
-Right to remain silent (it is always advised to never talk to the police under any circumstances).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_America...
Still, the issue with school shootings is mostly that it targets the wrong people. After school programs, community support for troubled youth, options for local service or a job placement program for kids would all be solutions, but the youth only sees other kids at school as the problem. If the system is so screwed up that a kid feels the need to take up arms to fight against it, then they should, but school shootings are unnecessarily cruel and generally fail to lead to progressive changes; more often than not they become justification for increases in the very authoritarian measures that promote the violence in the first place.
That doesn't seem accurate. I'm guessing you haven't lived in a country where that's much closer to reality?
That's pretty good. It's a succinct contrast of the difference between a citizen and a subject.
always love a good laugh in the morning!
I'm as much a fan of sci-fi as anybody, and the last 5 years of space x should make anybody optimistic about the future of space exploration, but strip mining Saturn is a long way away from providing for the needs of MRI machines and other essential modern technology. what will happen first is that the prices will rise and we will stop using it in party balloons, and then it'll be too expensive for the lower 95% of the population for any use at all for decades/centuries - and that's even if we do manage to escape the local gravity well for good. even that's doubtful - space is just unbelievably hostile.
The cells are generally just "push fit", maybe with some kapton tape or foam to give them a snug fit. As for taking the vapes apart, A pair of pliers and some brute force is typically all that is needed to get them apart.
Cell shape is either cylindrical or rectangular, depends on the vapes shape really. You get the knack of remembering/guessing what the shape will be just by looking at the vape.
EDIT: those batteries look like they'd be very useful for some ESP32/PI2350 type projects.
Some disposable vapes even include a USB port to recharge that battery, which is why it's certain that they're rechargable.
I collected a few that she was going to throw out, someday™ I'll build some driver boards for the displays and make a little art piece out of them.
The Geek Bar Pulse has the custom multi-segment on the side: https://oss.geekbar.com/products/meloso-ultra/2/Orange%20Cre...
Is that a USB port on the underside? A rechargeable, non-refillable vape, oh my...
If the most modulatable link in the supply chain is sales to adults who then distribute to children, that's unfortunately going to be the point that lawmakers target. Sucks to give people a chance and then be shown why we were wrong.
Disposable vapes are an environmental disaster. If this new law forces the manufacturers to add a 5 cents usb port to recharge them or force them to make the cell removable so it can be charged (disposable vapes already use rechargeable cells, they just can't be charged currently), it's a win for everybody.
The tank is larger than the battery would burn without a recharge, but not refillable.
Is this just clumsy wording or a dog whistle for how you think society ought to be structured?
Because if the latter I take serious issue with the implied assumptions about the relationship between the government and the people.
Yeah, smoking is bad and vaping is only a little better but it's a pretty mild problem as far as societal ills go, adults are adults and you don't get to screw everyone because of a few bad actors.
> Ministers in England said the move [...] is intended to protect children's health and prevent environmental damage.
> intended to protect children's health
It sounds like you disagree and are expressing that disagreement as a difference of understanding. Is that right?
Profiteers had no problem. Vapers had no problem. The government had a problem.
This shows democracy actually working IMO. You elect people you trust and then they do the right thing despite individual people not doing that collectively.
Apparently "disposable" means "throw on the ground".
My impression was that these make up the lion's share of "disposable" vape sales. I've certainly never known anyone to use anything else, but I'm also not 14 and vaping in the bathroom.
Is it the right thing to do? AFAIK you're not supposed to put lithium batteries in general waste because if they get damaged in processing they can start a fire, especially if they have a lingering amount of charge in them, which empty disposable vapes probably do.
More or less than cigarettes?
Serious question. I actually want to know.
Don't you just buy the capsules and put them into your regarchable vape? Or if you want to get exotic e liquid. I would assume that's much cheaper than buying a whole device each time much must cost more $$/££.
Basically, because they are as easy as possible and stay trendy by their revolving door nature.
- Disposables won't die on you. Unless you're getting massive carts the battery tends to last the whole time and you never worry about charging.
- Guaranteed compatible. I've seen seemingly standard carts not work with certain pens which can be very frustrating.
- The standard 510 thread cartridge kinda sucks. I'm not sure if it's a design flaw or a lot of bad manufacturers but they tend to leak and develop blockages.
The carts with longer mouthpieces just fit in my battery/pen, but yeah the cartridges need to be a standard length too.
> The standard 510 thread cartridge kinda sucks. I'm not sure if it's a design flaw or a lot of bad manufacturers but they tend to leak and develop blockages.
Blockages are an annoyance, yeah. I wonder if a "double-wide cart" would flow more easily?
That’s really the only negative to the large box mods, other than having to recharge 18650 batteries all the time. But disposables are usually much smaller(easier to hide if you’re in school), use nicotine salts(which are much more potent) and they usually last a long time - sometimes 20k hits. So these aren’t “bad” products, they have a lot of selling points.
That's the story at least in my head and in the US.
I tried a couple, once I found a strain/mix that seemed to work with my nerve and back pain, I bought a reusable vape and use cartridges now.
