"In 2023, the US alone was responsible for throwing out almost six vapes per second, or tens of millions of vapes a year, according to a report by the Public Interest Network. It doesn't help that vapes seem engineered to wreak maximum as much havoc on the environment as on human lungs, containing non-recyclable lithium ion batteries housed in a forever-plastic shell."
"If you could somehow harvest all that storage power, it would have considerable value - but how could it be done? That's a question YouTuber Chris Doel was eager to find the answer to. Doel recently embarked on a months-long DIY project to repurpose 500 junk vapes found in the street to build a battery bank capable of powering his entire house."
Disposable vapes generate massive non-recyclable waste, with the US discarding almost six vapes per second in 2023. Most contain lithium-ion batteries inside permanent plastic housings. Studies show these single-use batteries can be recharged up to 700 times, representing substantial latent energy value. A months-long DIY effort collected and disassembled 500 discarded vapes to harvest battery cells for a home-scale battery bank. A key challenge is identifying cells with sufficient voltage, since cells discharged below 3 volts become damaged and unusable. A CPAP pump was repurposed to simulate lung draws and quickly test which devices still produced vapor, indicating usable charge.
Read at Futurism
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