“Invisible” e-waste — from disposable vapes to toys and tangles of cables — is piling up and robbing supply chains of valuable materials.
Altogether, vapes and other small consumer items considered “invisible” weigh in at 9 billion kilograms (9 million metric tons) a year.
That’s like half a million dump trucks worth of electric toothbrushes, ugly holiday sweaters adorned with LEDs, drones, and other small electronics.
While discarded appliances and computers have posed problems for decades, the new analysis shines a light on often overlooked trends that have grown into a global mess.
Vapes (like other rechargeable devices) that wind up in the trash are a waste of lithium, a key battery mineral that the world is going to need a lot of to transition to cleaner energy and transportation.
“Millions of electronic cigarettes are being thrown away in a dustbin every single week … it’s an issue of great concern,” WEEE Forum director-general Pascal Leroy said in the press briefing.
The original article contains 515 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“Invisible” e-waste — from disposable vapes to toys and tangles of cables — is piling up and robbing supply chains of valuable materials.
Altogether, vapes and other small consumer items considered “invisible” weigh in at 9 billion kilograms (9 million metric tons) a year.
That’s like half a million dump trucks worth of electric toothbrushes, ugly holiday sweaters adorned with LEDs, drones, and other small electronics.
While discarded appliances and computers have posed problems for decades, the new analysis shines a light on often overlooked trends that have grown into a global mess.
Vapes (like other rechargeable devices) that wind up in the trash are a waste of lithium, a key battery mineral that the world is going to need a lot of to transition to cleaner energy and transportation.
“Millions of electronic cigarettes are being thrown away in a dustbin every single week … it’s an issue of great concern,” WEEE Forum director-general Pascal Leroy said in the press briefing.
The original article contains 515 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!