Powering an e-bike with disposable vapes is about more than technology – National

It is estimated that almost five million single-use vapes are thrown away every week in the UK; that's about eight per second.

In recent years, the use of disposable items has risen sharply, including in Canada, where: according to one studyit is now the most used type of e-cigarette among young people.

What many vapers don't realize is that the devices they throw away contain rare earth metals that are the key to so many new technologies.

The Nonprofit Group Estimates of material focus The batteries in all vapes discarded in Britain in 2022 contain enough lithium to power at least 5,000 electric vehicles.

For Chris Doel it is an unconscionable waste.

Target is a 25-year-old engineer who works for a major car manufacturer in the English Midlands.

“I see people around me smoking these and throwing them away after one use. And the electronics engineer in me thought, 'How can these be disposable?'” said Doel from his garage workshop in the city of Rugby.

“Especially when you see little flashing lights. I knew it might contain valuable electronics.”

So Doel did what any engineer worth his sodium chloride would do: he opened up a vapor to see what the battery cell looked like.

“When I first saw these cells, I thought they looked remarkably similar to the cells we actually use in our e-bike batteries. So I see no reason why we couldn't use this.

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“So the first step is to collect them and that's not that difficult. They are literally strewn everywhere. You find them in bushes and kick them around on the sidewalk.”

Doel calculated that he needed 130 of these units to power his bicycle.

He tested each battery to make sure they worked safely, designed the wiring and a 3D printed housing to hold them together.

Doel warns that no one should attempt this unless he or she is fully familiar with electronics and batteries.

“They can generate excessive heat. They can burn you, they can explode, they can burn your house down,” he says.

Doel estimates that his homemade e-bike battery costs about a quarter of the price of a commercial model, but he says the project wasn't about saving money.

“It's an incredible source of e-waste and I'm really happy that I've been able to harvest it all and build some really interesting battery packs,” says Doel.

“Because I can show the rest of the world – and all the other countries that haven't banned them yet – what they are capable of, and hopefully speed up that process and also raise awareness to get people to switch on reusable products. alternatives.”

Britain will ban single-use disposable vapes in 2025, and other countries are likely to follow suit.

Mark Miodownik is Professor of Materials and Society at University College London.

He says the vapor waste problem is part of a much bigger problem.

“Once you get lithium out of the ground, you really want to hold on to it. It's just an absolute crime to throw it away,” says Miodownik.

“Why is throwing away valuable materials cheap? Because the price is artificial. This does not include pollution. And if you included pollution, they wouldn't be cheap and disposability wouldn't be an option.”

Miodownik believes that both legislation and education are essential to creating a more circular economy where we reuse, repair or reduce valuable or harmful materials.

With the British vape ban looming, Doel knows time is running out to complete his next projects.

He wants to use hundreds or even thousands of vapes to create a power wall – possibly connected to solar panels – to power his workshop or even his home.

Since one of his YouTube videos went viral, people have even offered to send him their own used vapes.

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