Guide to Recycling Your Vape

There are 5.7 trillion cigarettes produced every year. That’s a substantial amount of paper required to make the cigarettes. Still, that means nothing compared to the effect that cigarette butts cause to the natural environment because of the chemicals held in the filter. Most smokers are waking up to the realisation of the dangers of cigarettes not only to the environment but also to their health and transitioning into vaping.

Besides providing smokers with an alternative, vaping also proves to be kinder to the environment. Although it will never be totally waste-free, vaping provides a safer choice for the body and the planet. Once your vape and parts have run their course, you can recycle them.

Recycling E-liquid Bottles and Pre-Filled Pods

E-liquid bottles and pre-filled pods are the easiest to recycle. They are made from plastic or glass, which can be recycled. Most bottles and pods have a recycling triangle with a number inside, indicating the type of plastic the bottle is made of.

Before sending the bottles for recycling, you must wash them thoroughly to remove any traces of e-liquid and nicotine, seal them and place them in your recycle bin at home.

For glass e-liquid bottles, only the glass bottle itself can be recycled once it’s clean. The pipette shouldn’t be recycled because it’s a mix of glass, plastic, and rubber. It can’t be broken down into its components, so that goes into the bin.

Vape Tanks

Recycling vape tanks require more care, maintenance, and attention to dispose of safely. The tanks are made from a combination of plastic, a glass sleeve, rubber seals, resin drip tip, coils, and the metal that holds everything together.

The drip tips are too small for recycling machines to pick up, so those go to the bin together with the rubber. The tanks themselves are made from pyrex glass. It’s a different type of glass than what’s used to make the glass jars you get at supermarkets. These need to be disposed of separately.

The metal components of the tank can be broken down as scrap metal. You can also pull out the cotton wicks and pop the metal component into the scrap metal bin. Before sending anything for recycling, make sure you’ve cleaned each component well before dropping it in the recycling bin.

Vape Kits and Mods

Recycling vape kits and vape mods is slightly different. It depends on how the kit or mod is made. It might have built-in or external batteries. Vape hardware with an external battery is much easier to recycle. You can send the batteries for recycling by placing them in a battery recycling bin. Most supermarkets have them nowadays, so you shouldn’t have trouble finding appropriate recycle bins for your worn-out batteries.

For vape kits with built-in batteries, you need to drop them off at locations where electronics like laptop batteries, mobile phones, and other tech gadgets are recycled.

As long as you can separate the tank or the pod that holds the e-liquid from the rest of the kit, the rest of the device can be recycled to some degree.

Disposable Vape and Pre-Filled Pods

Pre-filled vape kits and disposable vapes are the hardest to recycle. The devices are single-use and need to be disposed of once they are empty. Because of the way they’re made, it’s hard to separate the device into its elements (plastic, metal, and cotton). Therefore, they need to go into your household waste bin.

However, some leading disposable vape brands like QBAR have started recycling programs for their devices. All you have to do is drop the device at designated locations to be sent back to the company for recycling.

Disposing of Unwanted e-liquid

Supposing you bought an e-liquid whose flavour you didn’t like and want to throw it away, how would you do it?

E-liquids pose a risk to the environment and wildlife if you dispose of them recklessly. You should dispose of the e-liquid appropriately and then recycle the bottle, as explained. Start by checking if friends or family would be interested in taking the e-liquid off your hands. Some locations have provisions for sending the e-liquids to an e-liquid disposal site. 

If you don’t have access to such provisions, you should pour the e-liquid into absorbent material like wood chippings, cat litter, or sawdust and put it in a biodegradable bag, and throw it away with the normal waste.  

How to Reduce Your Impact on the Environment

Besides recycling your vape kits and other hardware, you can do a few other things to create less waste, use your vape more responsibly, and extend its life while limiting your impact on the environment. Even the smallest things you do collectively add up to create a huge difference. Here are a few ways you can contribute to a better environment while enjoying your vape;

• If you’re a sub-ohm vaper, consider buying bigger bottles of e-liquid. Buying one 100ml bottle instead of two 50ml or ten 10ml bottles reduces the amount of plastic waste that needs sorting and recycling.
• Explore nic-salts if you’re a mouth-to-lung vaper if you haven’t already. Nic salts come in a wider range of strengths and deliver more nicotine rapidly. That means you don’t need to vape as long to satisfy your cravings. That means less e-liquid consumption, less electricity, and less plastic waste to recycle.
• Most vapers prefer starting out using disposable vapes. While they are easier to use, they are harder to recycle, and brands have only started paying attention to recycling. Consider figuring out which kind of reusable and rechargeable kit is good for you. It will cut down on waste and open you up to a wider range of options in the process.
• You can also try other environment-conserving tips like vaping at lower watt settings if you have a variable wattage kit and vaping less sweet e-liquids.

You can compound the advantages of vaping by practicing responsible vaping that conserves the environment and encouraging other vapers to try out the same. Being mindful about the environment when vaping will help your hardware last longer while reducing your carbon footprint.