2026 Keep America Beautiful National Litter Study<\/a> estimates that 35 billion pieces of garbage are found outside of trash cans, with cigarette butts making up the largest share of inorganic material found dumped in streets, parks and shores.<\/p>\nAmericans throw away an estimated 500,000 vaping devices every day. Ina \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, vape litter is skyrocketing, according to the US Public Interest Research Group, with one of the smoking devices discarded every 5.7 seconds.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s approximately 500,000 per day.<\/p>\n
\u201cVapes have quietly become one of the most commonly thrown-away items in the country, and most people have no idea how harmful they are once they\u2019re tossed,\u201d said Shane Margereson, a spokesperson for vape retailer Ecigone. <\/p>\n
Their toxic and hazardous components \u2014 such as lithium battery, plastic, metals and leftover nicotine \u2014 make tossing more complicated than most realize, as only 8% of users take the proper steps to dispose of vaping devices. <\/p>\n
\u201cDropping one on the street isn\u2019t just an eyesore; it leaks toxins into the soil and water as it breaks down,\u201d Margereson continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe single biggest mistake is putting a vape in your household trash or your home recycling, and it\u2019s exactly what the Environmental Protection Agency tells you not to do,\u201d Margereson said. \u201cThat lithium battery can be crushed in a garbage truck or compactor and start a fire, and it happens at waste facilities far more often than people realize.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of a standard garbage bin, vaping devices should be collected and brought to a hazardous waste drop-off point or collection event. And, despite their plastic parts, they\u2019re absolutely not recyclable. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s the dirt on America. A new survey has revealed the US cities with the worst pollution, including…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[13537,2356,192,149,5871,20200,79,2427,19048],"class_list":["post-702065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-air","tag-california","tag-environment","tag-lifestyle","tag-metro","tag-pollution","tag-science","tag-travel","tag-waste-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}