Fuller ships them to a recycling facility in Arizona. Vaping devices have batteries, usually lithium-ion. I don’t want them to have access to this.”Īs waste products, the different components of the e-cigarettes must be dealt with separately. The parent told Fuller: “I just want to get this out of my house. One time, a parent came by to discard a box full of refillable plastic containers for vaping liquids, found in a child’s room. People were dropping off vaporizers, pods and batteries, but the items were also showing up in the trash. This new tributary to the waste stream appeared about two years ago, she said. Instead, vapers should bring them to a hazardous waste or recycling center like hers.Īt a battery sorting table, Fuller showed off a bucket of e-cigarette items. Shelly Fuller, who manages Boulder County’s hazardous materials program, said none of the components should be tossed in the trash. “If you use vapor or Juul or something, all you’re going to think about is, like, getting the buzz, not where you’re going to throw away your stuff,” Ocon said. “I’ve caught a couple of guys,” said Chavez, but students will often say, “‘It wasn’t me.’”Īngel Ocon played football at Boulder High and said he’s seen plenty of discarded pods under the bleachers of the school stadium. In a boys’ bathroom, Chavez pointed to a small hole in the wall, where students deposit finished pods. “Most of these things that we find mostly are in the cracks of these chairs here,” Chavez said. Students stuff them between furniture cushions. In November, Boulder voters approved a 40% tax on all electronic smoking devices, including vape pens and the disposable pods.ĭuring a walk around Boulder High, custodian Allen Chavez pointed out where he finds empty Juul pods. Boulder’s schools and its health and waste management departments teamed up to create a website about e-cigarettes and vaping that includes information on safe disposal. ![]() In Boulder, the community is responding to the onslaught of waste. Where old cartridges and sleek battery-laden devices go after they’re used is becoming a huge problem for waste managers - and school administrators. In 2017, people bought more than 16 million of the devices in the U.S., a figure that doesn’t include the disposable pods, which in the case of Juul are often sold in packs of four. It snaps onto the base smoking device, often called a “vape pen,” which can look like an actual pen or an innocuous digital accessory such as a flash drive. ![]() The disposable pod is a small plastic cartridge that holds the nicotine liquid. ![]() Meet Colorado’s Congressional delegation.Vaping waste is a whole new headache for schools and cities, including in Colorado - The Colorado Sun Close
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