How Ben Green is making tabletop robots with Elf Bar batteries.
If I told you that disposable vapes are creating waste every day, you’ll probably assume it’s because of the amount of plastic found in products like Elf Bars and Lost Mary's. Though you’d be right, you’d be missing a big factor contributing to this waste – batteries.
Ben Green, a lecturer at Falmouth University’s Games Academy, collects used vapes and takes them apart to use their batteries and microphones.
Microphones? - Yes, you read that right.
In your common disposable vape, a small microphone, as big as a Tic Tac, is used as a sensor. It knows when the user breathes in and activates the battery, which appears just like an average AA.
Most commonly you’ll find a 13400 or 13300 lithium battery in these devices, which typically can charge and recharge up to 1,000 times. Yet, - when put to work inside an Elf Bar, for example - the batteries only use 0.1% of their potential life.
Once the battery dies and there are no puffs left, the vape is thrown away and discarded.
This is where Ben Green’s recycling scheme comes into play.
Across the Falmouth University Campus there are recycling bins dedicated to used vapes. Ben collects them and, quite simply, takes them apart.
He dissembled one in front of me, and we spoke about what he plans on doing with the pieces.
“So far, I’ve built some miniature table-top robots that use these vape batteries.
They charge with a basic USB.”
Unfortunately, there weren’t any of these metal men around for me to share with you readers, but Ben promised me that soon they’ll be a lot more electronics fueled off these barely used batteries.
Matt Watkins, another member of staff at the Games Academy, has been working with students in Sustainable Product Design to see what else these batteries can do.
He tells me: “They have a lot of potential. We’re hoping to have a workshop with students in the department to see what they can come up with. We can see what other machines can be built using the recycled materials Ben has gotten from the vapes.”
With a potential ban put on Vapes in the UK in 2025, Ben hopes that lithium batteries aren’t put to waste anymore.
What will these innovators do next with these discarded parts?
And what really is disposable about these disposable vapes?
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