For years, the debate surrounding vaping largely centered on its risks for high school and middle school students enticed by flavors like gummy bear, lemonade and watermelon.
But the recent shift toward e-cigarettes that can’t be refilled has created a new environmental dilemma. The devices, which contain nicotine, lithium and other metals, cannot be reused or recycled. Under federal environmental law, they also aren’t supposed to go in the trash.
U.S. teens and adults are buying roughly 12 million disposable vapes per month. With little federal guidance, local officials are finding their own ways to dispose of e-cigarettes collected from schools, colleges, vape shops and other sites.
It’s not so much of a hassle as it is a danger and I don’t think places like Circle K or your local corner store should be penalized for selling a perfectly legal product nor should their untrained employees be forced to handle potentially dangerous materials. If anything, the manufacturers of these products should be penalized and forced to come up with a solution to the problem.