03-24-2023, 04:34 PM
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith is a culture reporter for Stuff who has been vaping for four years.
COMMENT: It's easily the most disgusting thing I do not just to myself, but to the planet.
I’d sooner let myself suffer from dehydration than buy a plastic water bottle, I’m carless with my primary mode of transportation being walking, and most of my wardrobe has been sourced from slow fashion brands and thrift stores – yet when it comes to my vape, I’m a sucker for a cheap puff.
I started smoking cigarettes in 2019 during a trip through Europe, where a pack of cigarettes cost around NZ$9, and after returning to New Zealand, purchasing packs for $28 (the cheapest price at that time) quickly became financially unsustainable.
I decided to wean myself off cigarettes by vaping – now, four years later, I’m still addicted to nicotine, but instead of a cigarette, I’m hooked on my vape.
From the start, I have always owned a vape that relies on pods, rather than one with a built-in vape tank and coil.
Pods contain the e-liquid (or ‘vape juice’), are bought separately from the vape and are wasted when finished and replaced with a new pod.
After years of chucking packet after packet of pods away, I wondered if my wish to live sustainably could help me quit. I decided to spend a month collecting all of my vape waste to better visualise how much rubbish I’m producing from this habit.
I ended up coming away with 12 empty packets of vape pods from December 2022 to January 2022, smoking three pods worth of vape liquid a week, meaning one pod will typically only last me two or three days.
For my Relx-brand vape, pod packet comes with a few extras, including a printed User Agreement outlining possible adverse side effects and general advice on using and maintaining your vape, which I’ve actually never read until now.
Inside the cardboard packet is a separate plastic case which holds the pod, and attached to the pod itself is bits and pieces of plastic, presumably used to prevent leakage of the e-liquid.
There are four different pieces of removable plastic that come with the pod, meaning that for the 12 vape pods I used this month, 48 little pieces of plastic were incorporated into my waste.
I always recycle the cardboard packaging of my vape products, however everything else is chucked into a rubbish bin and sent to landfill, and admittedly there have been occasions where I have found those little plastic bits strewn around my flat and have worried if I’ve also accidentally dropped some on the street.
In a single month, I spent $120 on 1.9ml pods of vape juice, which is roughly the same amount as my monthly power bill. If I continue smoking the same amount each month of the rest of the year, I’ll be spending $1440 on vape liquids for 2023.
COMMENT: It's easily the most disgusting thing I do not just to myself, but to the planet.
I’d sooner let myself suffer from dehydration than buy a plastic water bottle, I’m carless with my primary mode of transportation being walking, and most of my wardrobe has been sourced from slow fashion brands and thrift stores – yet when it comes to my vape, I’m a sucker for a cheap puff.
I started smoking cigarettes in 2019 during a trip through Europe, where a pack of cigarettes cost around NZ$9, and after returning to New Zealand, purchasing packs for $28 (the cheapest price at that time) quickly became financially unsustainable.
I decided to wean myself off cigarettes by vaping – now, four years later, I’m still addicted to nicotine, but instead of a cigarette, I’m hooked on my vape.
From the start, I have always owned a vape that relies on pods, rather than one with a built-in vape tank and coil.
Pods contain the e-liquid (or ‘vape juice’), are bought separately from the vape and are wasted when finished and replaced with a new pod.
After years of chucking packet after packet of pods away, I wondered if my wish to live sustainably could help me quit. I decided to spend a month collecting all of my vape waste to better visualise how much rubbish I’m producing from this habit.
I ended up coming away with 12 empty packets of vape pods from December 2022 to January 2022, smoking three pods worth of vape liquid a week, meaning one pod will typically only last me two or three days.
For my Relx-brand vape, pod packet comes with a few extras, including a printed User Agreement outlining possible adverse side effects and general advice on using and maintaining your vape, which I’ve actually never read until now.
Inside the cardboard packet is a separate plastic case which holds the pod, and attached to the pod itself is bits and pieces of plastic, presumably used to prevent leakage of the e-liquid.
There are four different pieces of removable plastic that come with the pod, meaning that for the 12 vape pods I used this month, 48 little pieces of plastic were incorporated into my waste.
I always recycle the cardboard packaging of my vape products, however everything else is chucked into a rubbish bin and sent to landfill, and admittedly there have been occasions where I have found those little plastic bits strewn around my flat and have worried if I’ve also accidentally dropped some on the street.
In a single month, I spent $120 on 1.9ml pods of vape juice, which is roughly the same amount as my monthly power bill. If I continue smoking the same amount each month of the rest of the year, I’ll be spending $1440 on vape liquids for 2023.