The nationwide use of disposable e-cigarettes poses new challenges for local governments, attempting to find out how to properly dispose of them. One of the main issues is that the millions of micro battery powered products that consumers throw into the trash can every year are classified as hazardous waste.

These devices contain nicotine, lithium, and other metals and cannot be reused or recycled. According to federal environmental law, they should not be thrown into the trash can.

We are in a very strange regulatory environment where there is no legal place to place these items, but we know that tens of millions of disposable items are thrown into the trash every year, "said Yogi Hale Hendlin, a health and environmental researcher at the institution. The University of California, San Francisco told The Associated Press.


Cost issues

In late August, sanitation workers in Monroe County, New York transported over 5500 brightly colored e-cigarettes into 55 gallon steel drums. Their destination? There is a huge industrial waste incinerator in northern Arkansas, where these waste will be melted.

Sending 350 pounds of e-cigarettes to various parts of the country for incineration may not sound environmentally friendly. But local officials say this is the only way to prevent nicotine filling devices from entering sewers, waterways, and landfills, as lithium batteries in these areas may catch fire.

These are all very insidious devices, "said Michael Garland, the county's director of environmental services. They have a fire risk, and if managed improperly, they will definitely become environmental pollutants

In other places, the processing becomes both expensive and complex. For example, in New York City, officials seized hundreds of thousands of illegal e-cigarettes from local stores, each costing over $1 to dispose of.


Hazardous waste

Critics of e-cigarettes argue that the industry has avoided responsibility for the environmental impact of its products, while federal regulatory agencies have failed to force changes to make e-cigarette components easier to recycle or reduce waste.

Possible changes include standards requiring electronic cigarettes to be reusable or forcing manufacturers to fund collection and recycling programs. New York, California, and several other states have established so-called extended product liability laws for computers and other electronic products. But these laws do not cover e-cigarette products, and there are no similar federal requirements in any industry.

The Environmental Protection Agency's regulations on hazardous waste do not apply to households, which means it is legal for Americans to throw e-cigarettes into their trash cans. But most businesses, schools, and government facilities are constrained by EPA standards on how to handle harmful chemicals such as nicotine. The EPA considers nicotine to be an "acute hazardous waste" because it may be toxic at high levels.

Lithium in e-cigarette batteries is as sought after as metal used to power electric vehicles and mobile phones. But the quantity used in e-cigarette devices is too small to be recycled. Moreover, almost all disposable e-cigarette batteries are soldered into the device, making it impractical to separate them for recycling.

According to US government data, disposable e-cigarettes currently account for approximately 53% of the US multi billion e-cigarette market, which has more than doubled since 2020.

In recent months, the FDA has begun attempting to block the import of several leading disposable brands, including Elf Bar and Esco Bar. Regulatory agencies consider them illegal, but they cannot prevent them from entering the United States, and these devices are now ubiquitous in convenience stores, gas stations, and other stores.

FDA Tobacco Director Brian King stated in a statement that the agency "will continue to carefully consider the potential environmental impacts of e-cigarette products".


Money is important

According to data from New York City, officials have seized over 449.000 e-cigarettes since November last year. The city spent approximately $1.400 to destroy each container containing 1.200 confiscated e-cigarettes, but there are still more e-cigarettes left in the city's storage cabinets.

I don't think anyone has considered the number of such issues in our community, "said New York Sheriff Anthony Miranda, who led the task force on the issue. This work has invested a lot of resources

The recent lawsuit against four large e-cigarette distributors aims to recover some of the city's costs.

Currently, New Yorkers who smoke e-cigarettes can bring their used e-cigarettes to city sponsored waste collection activities.

In the end, these e-cigarettes encountered a familiar fate: they were transported to Gum Springs, Arkansas, and burned by the international waste management company Veolia. In recent years, the company has burned over 1.6 million pounds of e-cigarette waste, most of which are unsold inventory or discontinued products.

Veolia executives have stated that lithium-ion batteries that burn e-cigarettes may damage their incinerators.


Giant Stone Finish

Ideally, we don't want to burn them because they have to be completed very, very slowly. But if necessary, we would do the same, "said Bob Cappadona, the head of the company's environmental services department.

Veolia also processes e-cigarettes from Boulder County, Colorado, which is one of the only jurisdictions in the United States actively attempting to recycle e-cigarette batteries and components.

Starting from 2019, county officials began distributing trash cans to schools for the confiscation or disposal of e-cigarettes. Last year, they collected 3.500 pieces.

County staff classify equipment by type and separate equipment with detachable batteries for recycling. Disposable items are packaged and transported to the Veolia incinerator. The project leader, Shelly Fuller, stated that with the shift from e-cigarette waste to disposable e-cigarettes, the cost of managing e-cigarette waste is becoming higher and labor is becoming more intensive.



I kind of miss the days when we had Juuls, where I could easily remove each battery and recycle it, "Fuller said. No one has time to demolish a thousand Esco bars