Lithium-ion battery waste fires are increasing, and vapes are a big part of it
2024 was "a year of growth," according to fire-suppression company Fire Rover, but that's not an entirely good thing.The company, which offers based on thermal and optical imaging, smoke analytics, and human verification, releases annual reports on waste and recycling facility fires in the US and Canada to select industry and media. In 2024, Fire Rover, based on its fire identifications, saw 2,910 incidents, a 60 percent increase from the 1,809 in 2023, and more than double the 1,409 fires confirmed in 2022.
Publicly reported fire incidents at waste and recycling facilities also hit 398, a new high since Fire Rover began compiling its report eight years ago, when that number was closer to 275.
Lithium-ion battery waste fires are increasing, and vapes are a big part of it
Tiny batteries and “disposable” e-cigs remain big risks for waste handlers.Kevin Purdy (Ars Technica)
This entry was edited (6 days ago)
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ShellMonkey
in reply to misk • • •Stop selling disposable vapes, this is not complicated. I've since stopped but first encountered vapes back when they called it e-smoking and the devices where really crude. After a few years they finally got something decently reliable and reusable down and people had their personal device.
I'm not even sure when disposables became a thing but the notion of use one and discard electronics is nuts. The whole industry could do well to come up with some standards so you don't have to search out some specific model of atomizer to fit a certain piece, but it's not impossible.
tiramichu
in reply to ShellMonkey • • •The UK is about to ban disposable vapes, but I fear it may achieve little.
What the legislation does is to define what "reusable" means, and demand that vapes must meet that.
In reality, I suspect that manufacturers will simply adjust their strategies to produce vapes that are "technically" reusable and rechargeable and meet the law in a bare-minimum way, but really are intended to be used exactly once, just like disposable ones were, and that's exactly how they will continue to be treated by consumers.
Cost will probably go up 20% to cover it, but that's all, and in the end even more material will be going in landfill.
In my opinion, what the legislation should have done is to set an absolute minimum price on the cost of a vape pen. That would be very heavy-handed, but it would actually create the strong financial motivation required to force consumers to genuinely treat the vape pen as something they will re-use.
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Gronk
in reply to tiramichu • • •At least it can't be as bad as what we've got in Australia.
A ham fisted law passed through to ban 'all vapes' except for a select few that are manufactured by philip morris and the other big tobacco companies.
The tax on cigarettes alongside this has made an extremely lucrative black market for organised crime.
millie
in reply to tiramichu • • •variouslegumes
in reply to misk • • •LandedGentry
in reply to variouslegumes • • •like this
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Ben Hur Horse Race
in reply to LandedGentry • • •LandedGentry
in reply to Ben Hur Horse Race • • •termus
in reply to variouslegumes • • •I'm pretty sure they technically are but no one cares enough to stop their sale. Obama banned "vape flavorings targeting children" which all of them seem to be. I've only seen them for sale in vape/tobacco shops. Places that get regulated, like gas stations, aren't carrying them. At least around where I am in the USA.
Edit. Doing further research... I guess they didn't?
CmdrShepard42
in reply to variouslegumes • • •jarfil
in reply to CmdrShepard42 • • •Not exactly. Toy-shaped non-nicotine fruit-flavored cheap disposables, are the best thing to get children hooked up on vaping.
Tobacco companies used to promote candy cigarettes for the same purpose.
candy in the form of a cigarette
Contributors to Wikimedia projects (Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.)CmdrShepard42
in reply to jarfil • • •This is literally the argument they used and it's complete bullshit propaganda. Can you elaborate in detail on what makes it "toy shaped?" Do you consume fruit and or fruit-flavored things as an adult? I'm surprised you didn't also mention "bright colors" as another draw being so appealing to children as well. I guess I never got the memo as an adult that I should only be consuming and enjoying drab colored, unflavored oatmeal for all my meals as color and flavor are no longer appealing to me.
I suppose I should be forced to smoke cancer-causing cigarettes produced by big tobacco for my crime of enjoying nicotine and flavors as an adult all so some shitty parents can be absolved of their duty as parents. While we're at it let's also ban things like D&D and rock music because those lure children into worshipping the devil which leads to things like talking back and human sacrifice.
Maybe after we ban everything dangerous, we can take our children to McDonalds to buy them an artery clogging cheeseburger happy meal and a large coke to celebrate before droppin
... Show more...This is literally the argument they used and it's complete bullshit propaganda. Can you elaborate in detail on what makes it "toy shaped?" Do you consume fruit and or fruit-flavored things as an adult? I'm surprised you didn't also mention "bright colors" as another draw being so appealing to children as well. I guess I never got the memo as an adult that I should only be consuming and enjoying drab colored, unflavored oatmeal for all my meals as color and flavor are no longer appealing to me.
I suppose I should be forced to smoke cancer-causing cigarettes produced by big tobacco for my crime of enjoying nicotine and flavors as an adult all so some shitty parents can be absolved of their duty as parents. While we're at it let's also ban things like D&D and rock music because those lure children into worshipping the devil which leads to things like talking back and human sacrifice.
Maybe after we ban everything dangerous, we can take our children to McDonalds to buy them an artery clogging cheeseburger happy meal and a large coke to celebrate before dropping them back off in front of the TV, so they can watch their commercials interfaced with the occasional colorful cartoon while they play with their happy meal toy and we go back to not giving a shit about them.
jarfil
in reply to CmdrShepard42 • • •If you didn't get the memo about marketing targeting, there are courses for that. You can drop the sarcasm.
CmdrShepard42
in reply to jarfil • • •jarfil
in reply to CmdrShepard42 • • •You call it "bullshit propaganda", because you haven't seen black market disposables from China advertised at you local vape shop? Have you considered that, maybe, you haven't seen them... precisely because they were stopped at customs?
No, I'm not even going to look for a SKU listing, just for your dismissal. Go believe it's FUD if that makes you happier. Ask your government agencies to lift all bans, for extra un-FUDding.
CmdrShepard42
in reply to jarfil • • •You aren't going to look for them because you just grabbed whatever image you found from a Google search and have no clue what you're even talking about.
If these even exist, the only reason why a black market would exist for vapes is because of the idiotic bans that created it by killing the legitimate market further proving my point. Furthermore your argument that they're "stopped at customs" contradicts your previous argument that they're being marketed and sold to kids since they aren't being sold at all.
jarfil
in reply to CmdrShepard42 • • •A random Google search would find you these articles:
bangkokpost.com/thailand/gener…
dailymail.co.uk/health/article…
I'm not going to discuss recent history revisionism, circular argumentation, or the illusion that your country is the only one in the world. Have fun!
FDA cracks down on e-cigarettes with child-friendly packaging
Mansur Shaheen (Daily Mail)CmdrShepard42
in reply to jarfil • • •Imagine that, your previous images were pulled from an article claiming these are being sold in Thailand by Chinese companies just like I thought, so your argument is that vapes should be banned in the US because of what may or may not be happening in Thailand?
How convenient for you and your argument since that means you only need to find one example of a bad thing happening in the world and can then apply that bad example to millions of other unrelated products sold elsewhere in the world. What happened to your argument claiming that these were being stopped by US Customs? That so quickly morphed into "it doesn't matter if these products were actually shipped and sold here because Thailand!"
Your other article, from the rag that is the Daily Mail, claims that Squid Games is a children's TV show, and only lists one western company receiving a notice (which they incorrectly called a "Canadian" company rather than a California based company in true Daily Mail fashion) for hav
... Show more...Imagine that, your previous images were pulled from an article claiming these are being sold in Thailand by Chinese companies just like I thought, so your argument is that vapes should be banned in the US because of what may or may not be happening in Thailand?
How convenient for you and your argument since that means you only need to find one example of a bad thing happening in the world and can then apply that bad example to millions of other unrelated products sold elsewhere in the world. What happened to your argument claiming that these were being stopped by US Customs? That so quickly morphed into "it doesn't matter if these products were actually shipped and sold here because Thailand!"
Your other article, from the rag that is the Daily Mail, claims that Squid Games is a children's TV show, and only lists one western company receiving a notice (which they incorrectly called a "Canadian" company rather than a California based company in true Daily Mail fashion) for having a vape that resembles a banana. How convincing since we all know how crazy and insaitiable children get when they see something that slightly resembles a banana. They gotta have it!
Didn't you already say that when you claimed you "didn't get those images from a quick Google search" and "wouldn't bother to verify the legitimacy of these products" even though you just now claimed to do a quick Google search to find the very articles that your images came from? Why such inconsistencies?
jarfil
in reply to CmdrShepard42 • • •Pete Hahnloser
in reply to misk • • •I switched from cigarettes to vaping in 2016 -- after trying and failing multiple times through an eGo stage -- once box mods had evolved to the point of being reliable and delivering a satisfying hit. That mod worked until 2023.
I've since had three fail, and you don't want to spend $100 (when it's not Black Friday and your mod dies, that's the going rate at local vape shops, since I guess the margin on a single-18650 mod isn't good enough) to be able to use your remaining $12 of juice when a disposable that lasts for a few weeks runs $20.
As such, I've been using disposables for several months now. I don't like this transition given the waste and danger involved, but nicotine addiction is a bitch.
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gonzo-rand19
in reply to Pete Hahnloser • • •Have you considered checking out the used market? I haven't seriously vaped since 2016 when I used it to quit smoking (and all my vape stuff got stolen in a move in 2017), but I remember that the used mod scene was pretty damn good back in the day.
I have a OBS Cube-X that's still going strong and does everything I want it to, so a used single-18650 like that might fit the bill depending on your needs and is probably way less than $100.
Pete Hahnloser
in reply to gonzo-rand19 • • •gonzo-rand19
in reply to Pete Hahnloser • • •I can assure you that you can still access the used market with these limitations since you can arrange to meet others at a public place nowhere near your home. A lot of the groups and sales are on Facebook though, so that's a huge bummer.
But you could also check your local vaping meetups, flea markets, or pawn shops, as well as classifieds websites such as Kijiji or Craigslist (those are the 2 most well-known where I live, your local area may use other websites). You should be able to entirely avoid shipping if vaping is common where you live.
Pete Hahnloser
in reply to gonzo-rand19 • • •gonzo-rand19
in reply to Pete Hahnloser • • •Pete Hahnloser
in reply to gonzo-rand19 • • •TwiddleTwaddle
in reply to Pete Hahnloser • • •Little refillable and rechargeable salt-nic vapes are nearly as cheap as disposables up front and much cheaper over time. You usually can't get them at gas stations like you can with disposables, but the reoccurring cost of replacement pods and juice is much less than constantly buying a new disposable. My partner and I are big fans of our Vaporesso Xross.
I really dont understand how disposables have gotten so commonplace with so many good salt-nic vapes on the market.
Pete Hahnloser
in reply to TwiddleTwaddle • • •jarfil
in reply to Pete Hahnloser • • •I'm not into nicotine (menthol extra cold nasal cleaning is my thing), and after comparing prices... went with the 100% modular Vaporesso: mod, pod, coil, custom juice. Initially it's slightly more expensive, but pods last forever, grabbed some coil packs at a good discount which pretty much offset the rest, and after almost a year still haven't gone through a full bottle of juice.
In EU, Spain in particular, we get 3 years of warranty on customer devices, so the mod itself better last that long!
CmdrShepard42
in reply to Pete Hahnloser • • •ryannathans
in reply to misk • • •space_iio
in reply to misk • • •jarfil
in reply to space_iio • • •space_iio
in reply to jarfil • • •jarfil
in reply to space_iio • • •Kind of. Personally, I started using them precisely because I can be reasonably sure that I'd get some without nicotine. My favorite active compound is menthol and "cool effect", with other flavors from time to time.
Used to be an "After Eight" chocolate fan, but a vape juice bottle plus any random chocolate, is way cheaper.
terminhell
in reply to misk • • •