• ExLisper@linux.community
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    9 months ago

    This shit really grinds my gears. There’s absolutely no need for this product. Normal vape is like $20, you’re not saving on anything. In EU the manufacturers are obligated to recover used units (they have to setup boxes where you can drop them and handle recycling) but obviously you see them on the ground all the time. This should be banned with the speed of light but EC thinks the current regulations are enough. Fucking infuriating.

    • TheMurphy@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I was in Italy recently, and I could ONLY buy single use. I fucking hated it as it died in two days making me throw out an otherwise fine device - just because there’s no charging port.

      Now I have one lasting for almost half a year, and that’s only the taste that dissappears - not the battery becoming bad.

    • sleepy555@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Disposable e-cigarettes were a direct and immediate response to pod based vapes getting banned. Use to be, you would buy a device and just buy juice pods that were disposable. It still wasn’t great for waste, but that policy was a clear step in the wrong direction.

      They saved children from using Juuls, just to fill the landfills with lithium batteries.

      • ExLisper@linux.community
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        9 months ago

        You’re talking about US, right? I don’t think pod based vapes are banned in EU. And disposable ones are still sold here.

    • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      There’s absolutely no need for this product. Normal vape is like $20

      A single use disposable is like $4 - $10, depending on how many puffs, and some people just want something they can puff on for the weekend and then quit, not something they can use/reuse long term.

      Sure it’s not healthy, and it’s environmentally irresponsible with current single use disposables, but there’s definitely a market of “casual smokers” that don’t want to commit to a non-disposable vape.

      • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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        9 months ago

        When it’s easier for people to litter, they litter more. I don’t care if they want to vape while pretending they’re only gonna do it for one weekend.

        • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          Sure, I’m just saying there is definitely a market for single-use vapes. I’m not saying it’s good or right to buy and use a single-use vape, but people definitely do it.

      • ExLisper@linux.community
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        9 months ago

        Really? People smoke for one weekend and then quit? Never ever heard about this. Sure, there are people that smoke sporadically, for example only while partying or something but this is such a minority I doubt anyone would target a product specifically at them. Besides, you can just buy normal vape and buy refills only for one weekend and then ‘quit’. $20 non-disposable vape is no commitment, that’s my point. And people who can’t afford to spend $20 on a vape probably shouldn’t be spending their money on smoking anyway. There’s tons of policies to discourage people from smoking, banning cheap, single use vapes should be one of them.

        • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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          9 months ago

          There certainly are casual smokers, who might buy a pack of cigarettes on Friday and be done with it by Sunday (usually after giving out several along the way) to repeat the next week.

          These people don’t see themselves as addicts, and they for all intents and purposes aren’t, otherwise they’d be jonesing all week and buying a pack on Monday.

          Making the leap from “having a finite amount of smoke” to “owning reusable paraphernalia” is a big jump for a casual smoker. And more than likely would enable them to justify smoking during the week.

          It’s the same thing as the guy who buys an eight of weed, brings it to the party, smokes a flew blunts, and then doesn’t smoke the whole week. This guy has no need for a glass bong in his house, and he wouldn’t be able to justify its purpose, but its existence would likely mold his occasional use into something more frequent.

          • ExLisper@linux.community
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            9 months ago

            What you’re describing is such a tiny minority of smokers I really don’t see why we need specific product aimed at them. If they don’t want to own a vape they can just keep smoking cigarettes. It would be better for everyone if they just stopped smoking. Contaminating environment with disposable batteries for their convenience is just insane.

            • jasondj@ttrpg.network
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              9 months ago

              Well, the flip side is that the disposable vapes do get people on nicotine that would otherwise be casual smokers. On its own that’s a net neutral, but the jump from “buying disposable vape” to “buying a pack of cigarettes” is easier than the jump from “buying a disposable vape” to “buying a refillable and rechargeable system”.

              So I guess disposable vapes are a bit of a double-edge sword. I’d rather the occasional/social smoker pick up a disposable vape than a pack of cigarettes. But I also know that most of the major disposable vape brands are owned by the classic big tobacco names. However, at least they are taking the Gillette model, with a rechargeable battery and disposable cartridges. But these are also the ones sold at gas stations. If people don’t have their disposable vape available, I’d think they’d be more likely to purchase cigarettes than a whole new system, and I see that as another negative.

              • ExLisper@linux.community
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                9 months ago

                Sorry but I just don’t agree. IMHO some “casual smokers” using single use vapes to switch to vaping is such a small win (because it’s such a small group in the first place, only some of them will actually do it and they are still smoking after all) it’s not worth even a single battery to be thrown in the trash let alone entire industry pumping out millions of them.

  • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    A few of us electronics hobbyists have been collecting them (when found discarded on the street) to harvest the battery for re-use in other projects.

    .

    Yes they’re nasty, but I pick them up with a dog poo bag and clean them before cracking them open to get the battery.

    • daed@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I was just thinking about this the other day. Any ideas for projects to use them with?

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          futuristic caltrops

          I am dying… 🤣

          Also they all have to be 0.1 v from each other otherwise the “whole thing goes south” sounds scary and is now kind of making me rethink my plan of putting up collection boxes outside of high schools and building a battery for my house out of them.

          • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
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            9 months ago

            Once it’s balanced and wired it’s impossible to be imbalanced again though. The risk is only during initial assembly and you accidentally includes an empty cells among fully charged cells.

            building a battery for my house

            Uh yeah that’s totally different league than building a power bank though.

            • adrian783@lemmy.world
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              9 months ago

              this is only true if they’re 1s. but all bets are off if you have cell groups. God forbid you use them to make anything remotely useful like an ebike battery or home power storage.

    • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      I guess that’s the silver lining, free batteries for anyone willing to deal with a dirty object.

      They’re also a prime starting supply for lithium battery recycling plants so they can get things figured out before they have to deal with car packs at volume.

    • RagingRobot@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      You can also use them as mini fog machines if you hook up a small pump. I build dioramas and have been experimenting with them.

    • sibannac@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      I have a small collection from friends that use the disposables. What do you use them for? I had the idea to make keychain flash lights or a battery conversion of some kind.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        At the moment I have several strings of LED Christmas lights on various houseplants that are powered by salvaged batteries.

        Also a dollar store magnetic “spotlight” that I modified and have mounted to the chest freezer in the basement so I can see what’s in there.

  • Potatos_are_not_friends@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Oh wow it’s as of e-cigs is just like cigarettes, but besides cancer and toxic chemicals, they also found a way to add more waste.

    • Neil@lemmy.ml
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      9 months ago

      I gave up arguing with people like you a long time ago, but I still want you to know actively telling people they’re just as bad as cigarettes will keep people on cigarettes, which are 4000x worse than vaping. Your misguided views are extremely harmful.

      • KingCrimson@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        There’s little evidence of pure nicotine being carcinogenic afaik. Nicotine in tobacco is carcinogenic due to certain reactions with other chemicals in the tobacco plant

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        [Citation needed]. Both of you.

        There’s been a study which found carcinogenic compounds in vapour… thing is they overdrove the thing so hard that it was burning the wick, noone would actually take a puff of that. It’s the equivalent of setting a toaster to maximum and then saying that bread causes cancer.

      • kerrigan778@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        I mean, it is, but smoke and, weirdly, polonium are also very large contributors to cancer from tobacco use.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    I used to have roommates who vaped from that exact type of single-use device shown in the thumbnail diagram. They asked me to re-charge it, which I did, disassemble it, connect it to my Li-ion charger and it worked again. Apparently it didn’t taste good because it was nearly out of juice, but that was when I found out these were perfectly reusable 3.7V batteries in a disposable product.

    • blocker1980@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Isn’t there a difference between rechargable and single-use-batteries? I was always under the Impression you should under no circumstances try to recharge single use batteries or they would explode?

      • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        These are rechargeable lithium ion batteries. The same standard 18650 that has powered laptops, EVs, and power banks.

        They’re packaged inside a single use product, but the battery is rechargeable.

        • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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          9 months ago

          Many products actually have charging ports now. All they need to do is allow users to change out the flavor wick and we will come full circle.

          • Usernameblankface@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            Yeah, some extra electronics to handle charging would go a long way.

            Buuut, Quality charging controllers cost money the vapes company isn’t going to put in, and overly cheap controllers add a bigger fire hazard.

      • barsoap@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        You’d need quite a number of alkaline batteries to get the necessary watts to drive a vape. Lithium cells aren’t just rechargable they are also good at releasing lots of energy in a short amount of time.

      • Tibert@jlai.lu
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        9 months ago

        There is a difference. Not sure how they ar made, but the chemical composition and possibly the design is different.

        Trying to recharge a non rechargeable battery can risky and there is the possibility of leaking or explosion.

        • CalicoJack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          9 months ago

          In general yes, but that doesn’t apply here. Vapes all use rechargeable lithium batteries, even the disposables without a charging port. Other battery chemistries at that size don’t put out enough power.

  • FinishingDutch@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Meanwhile, I’m forced to use shitty paper straws because plastic straws are banned. And yet THIS SHIT is somehow legal??

    • WindowsEnjoyer@sh.itjust.works
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      9 months ago

      Myself I buy these disposables from time to time, but always return to small electronics recycle boxes. It’s still electronic after all, with a fucking lithium battery in it.

      If you ask me - these should be banned. Only refillables should be allowed to exist.

    • ██████████@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Yall want to ban the whole world and Loicense up everything out there is fascism land huh?

      Wait till tis Yorupean finds out earth rocks and salt water is bad for you

      Loicense for salt too dangerous

      /sforgot the s

  • sndrtj@feddit.nl
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    9 months ago

    Popularity among 18 year olds of > 50%. Christ. A significant chunk of those will become long term users.

    • tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      Part of why the single use vapes are popular seems to me to be due to kids using them, they can toss it out so they won’t get in trouble for having it, or if they do get it taken away it’s just the one disposable instead of a reusable device. They also smell and taste like candy.

    • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 months ago

      There are plenty of people out there using equipment with replaceable and rechargable batteries and owned tanks that they refill with their own liquid

      Pretty much the least wasteful version of smoking as far as I can tell

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        9 months ago

        If you know how to solder new batteries and make and replace coils, one device could theoretically last almost forever. I would be curious to see what goes first after that.

        • Death_Equity@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          On rebuildable vapes, where everything but the electronics are user replaceable, the electronics are the weak point. There also are seals that need replacing and some poor quality atomizers(the vape production part) need replacement from wear. Legitimate batteries(not recycled and relabeled or off-brand) can last for 200-500 charge-discharge cycles.

          There are “mechanical” devices that have no electronics, but they are more risky because they create a hard short of the battery and a lack of appropriate caution can lead to catastrophic failure which may result in physical harm or property damage.

          The problem is the hassle of making coils and repacking wicks. They do have replaceable wick+coil units that aren’t really rebuildable, but it does cut down on waste compared to disposable units.

      • Seasm0ke@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        See I’m struggling with this transitioning from smoking handrolled pipe tobacco filterless cigarettes to reusable box mod Vape.

        One is cost, my past method I spent less than $700 a year on tobacco and paper. Now I spent $200 on a box mod and its been like $60 a month for liquid now, then lets say another $12 for coils. My costs have way more than doubled but I spent years finding a way to trim that down before.

        Secondly the waste. I had no filter so the last few puffs of paper and tobacco were biodegradable. Now I have at least 3 plastic bottles a month and their lids all piling up in the recycle. Then the metal coils, housings, and cotton just get tossed every month. The tank I had leaked so I wasted a lot of juice and had to buy extra, I replaced the tank for $30, that one leaked too and I couldnt return it, so I bought a better one overpriced at $40. That coil burned while on vacation, so I begrudgingly bought a disposable one for the first time and I’m finding I can pop it open and creatively refill it, so Ill be doing that until I get home and can replace the coil. Vape shops don’t take your used coils or bottles back in my area. I doubt they even get properly recycled because I cant rinse em effectively.

        I miss the simplicity of smoking right now but honestly the hassle and waste just makes me look forward to when I can quit for good and put all of it behind me.

  • GnuLinuxDude@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    oh good, there are single-use e-cigs? what will they think up next? single-use, disposable, electronic pregnancy tests?