‘Disposable’ vapes are hazardous waste: Here’s how to throw them away

DENVER (KDVR) — Despite pervasive belief, disposable vaping devices and e-cigarettes are not meant to be thrown in the trash.

In fact, throwing away a “disposable” vape with other household garbage can be a dumpster fire waiting to happen, literally.

Since disposable vaping devices have increased in popularity in recent years, Boulder County Hazardous Materials Program Manager Shelly Fuller told FOX31, “We’re seeing more and more fires across the nation because of batteries being thrown into the wrong location.”

Many of the devices have a symbol indicating that they should not be put in the trash can. This is because they are considered hazardous materials. However, a standardized way to recycle the devices does not exist anywhere in the country.

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Boulder County is one of the few U.S. jurisdictions that have taken measures to make nicotine vape disposal more convenient. There are collection bins in some of the local vape shops, and the county was able to use grant funding over the past three years to provide free disposal options for schools as well as consumers via vape shops. However, the measure does not extend to THC vapes.

About seven years ago, Fuller noticed the rise in e-cigarette use and started a collaboration between public health and hazardous materials officials. Larimer, Weld, El Paso and Mesa counties have since started take-back programs like Boulder County’s.

Fuller told FOX31 that Boulder County spent $5,000 on the disposal of vape devices last year, collecting 120 drop-offs from schools and vape shops totaling 7,706 devices. It’s a costly process because the batteries must be separated from the device itself, which often proves difficult and those devices end up incinerated.

“If there was a device where I could easily take the battery out and separate the nicotine from that, I could recycle the battery and the electronics very easily,” Fuller explained. “But when you combine nicotine and a battery, all the electronics recyclers don’t want to take that battery or electronic waste because they don’t want to deal with the hazardous waste.”

So how does one properly dispose of disposable vape devices?

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Disposable vapes, and all batteries for that matter, should be treated like other hazardous materials including paint, lawn and garden products or household chemicals to be properly disposed of.

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says taking an e-cigarette or disposable vape device to a household hazardous waste collection site is the best way to be sure that it does not cause a fire, expose first responders and other workers to toxic chemicals or release toxic chemicals into the environment.

“Look for the closest household hazardous waste facility,” Fuller said. “I know a lot of the household hazardous waste facilities like mine will accept batteries and dispose of them properly.”

Boulder County has a map on the website indicating which shops in the area have a drop-off bin for disposable vapes.

She added that some big box stores have drop boxes for batteries which may be more convenient than heading to a hazardous waste management facility.

While businesses and schools must handle harmful chemicals like nicotine according to EPA standards, EPA hazardous waste rules don’t apply to households like they do businesses, so there is no direct consequence for individuals who throw disposable vapes in garbage and recycling bins.

“It’s always highly encouraged to try to do the right thing if that resource is available to you,” Fuller said. “I really want to encourage folks to keep it out of the recycling bins and trash to prevent fires.”

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What makes a disposable vape a hazardous material?

There are two components in a disposable vaping device that are hazardous waste: lithium batteries and nicotine.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says nicotine is “toxic and poses a risk to both workers and the environment.” Liquid nicotine found in disposable e-cigarettes can be easily absorbed by the skin, potentially causing nicotine poisoning with symptoms like difficulty breathing, fainting or seizures, according to the EPA.

The lithium batteries inside the device are hazardous as they can catch fire, particularly when damaged.

Fuller explained that when placed in household trash and recycling bins, batteries can be damaged by the trash compactors and start fires.

Batteries causing more trash truck, waste facility fires

Disposable vapes and other devices with batteries should not be thrown in the trash because they pose both an environmental hazard and a fire hazard.

According to Larimer County, batteries are the cause of some 3-5 fires each month at the solid waste facility.

“We’ve seen pictures of trash trucks having to dump their load in the middle of the street because their truck is on fire,” Fuller said. “It might not catch on fire in the truck and it might actually make it to the recycling facility or to the landfill, and it starts a fire at the landfill.”

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Fires caused by batteries in the trash have become increasingly more common, and fuller said it is happening in communities around the nation.

She said all it takes is for something to hit the battery in just the right spot and a fire could break out. It can pose a danger to garbage truck drivers and result in costly damage to garbage trucks. Additionally, Fuller said it can be dangerous at landfills and recycling facilities where there is lots of fuel for fire like cardboard and paper products.

She said it happened in March last year. The entire recycling center was evacuated and by the time the fire was put out, all of the recyclables were wet.

“You can’t really recycle wet paper or wet cardboard, so we had to break all those bales open and try to dry it out,” Fuller said.

She said recovering from the fire cost thousands of dollars worth of repairs.

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