Vaping & the Planet

Vaping doesn’t just affect the air. Vape pods or e-liquid cartridges are often single-use plastic cartridges that cannot be refilled or reused, and some e-cigarettes themselves are made to be used and then promptly disposed of. Despite this, e-cigarette companies typically don’t provide enough guidance on how to properly dispose of them.

Your vape gear is hazardous waste.

Literally.

According to the Food and Drug Administration, e-cigarette parts like batteries and cartridges are officially classified as hazardous waste. When thrown into household or public trash, e-liquid cartridges can release harmful chemicals into the ground or water, which is hazardous for people and animals who come in contact with it.

Vape waste may even be a bigger threat to the environment than cigarette butts, as they are plastic and not biodegradable and they contain metal, batteries, toxic chemicals and more.

That means there have to be special guidelines for safely handling and disposing of them. Vape products often don’t have these instructions listed clearly, causing the pods to end up discarded improperly.

Think about that for a second: If it’s not even safe to put it in a landfill, why would you want it in your lungs?

Speaking of landfills, let’s talk about our plastic problem. With millions of teens vaping, there are bound to be millions of empty plastic pods — on the ground, in the trash, in our landfills forever (they don’t biodegrade).

Toxic to humans. Dangerous to animals. Just plain bad for everyone.

Learn more about vaping’s effect on the environment at truthinitiative.org.