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Guy makes “dodgy e-bike” from 130 used vapes to make point about e-waste (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

101 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Disposable vapes are indefensible. Many, or maybe most, of them contain rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, but manufacturers prefer to sell new ones.

To make a point about how wasteful this practice is—and to also make a pretty rad project and video—Chris Doel took 130 disposable vape batteries (the bigger "3,500 puff" types with model 20400 cells) found littered at a music festival and converted them into a 48-volt, 1,500-watt e-bike battery, one that powered an e-bike with almost no pedaling more than 20 miles. You can see the whole build and watch Doel zoom along trails on his YouTube video.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 1 week ago (14 children)

I’m not a vape user, but the model is the kind of thing that just makes me so angry.

In a world that makes sense:

small, mostly metal vape chassis
rechargeable, replaceable battery
built-in glass reservoir with charging valve
vape juice sold in medium to large recyclable cans with standard interface to the charging valve

In a world where Profit is God (the real world):

disposable chassis
disposable battery
if it’s refillable at all, it’s via non-recyclable, mixed material, mostly plastic, proprietary cartridges and you can save 5% if you subscribe online for refills, 10% if you pay yearly, $5 credit if you refer a friend on social media using hashtag #smoovape
probably gives you turbo cancer because the juice is made in a repurposed Freon plant that was inadequately converted and they just don’t answer the phone when the FDA or EPA call

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago (6 children)

I think part of it is something else - ease of use and ease of access.
The "world that makes sense" product exists already:
https://www.elementvape.com/box-mod-kits

While I was vaping I mixed my own liquids though, as the cost savings was immense and I could easily lower the nicotine mg/ml on my own until I quit it altogether.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Can't buy nicotine from the wholesalers anymore to do that in the US. Feds made it illegal.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

You totally can. I don't know exactly what the laws are because it's intentionally not clear but it's the same process as before, order from a diy website, it comes in the mail, make your stuff at home. I think the difference is that it's harder for websites to get the license to sell it but there are still some sites out there.

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