Onondaga County residents wanting to get rid of old vape devices now have a way. The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency is starting a pilot program beginning with a special collection Saturday. Public Information Officer Tammy Palmer says they’re trying to learn more about the devices and disposal options.
“This is an emerging market and it's growing. And we've noticed across the country there are not a lot of models for us to follow in terms of vape collection," Palmer said. "So we realized we were going to have to take some steps and start navigating this a little more deeply.”
Palmer says the devices are far more common. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found e-cigarette sales jumped 45 percent nationwide from 2020 to 2023. Palmer says the devices are also dangerous when improperly discarded. They can contain liquid nicotine, which is easily absorbed by the skin. OCRRA director of recycling and reduction Kristen Lawton says the lithium-ion rechargeable batteries also pose a risk.
“We don't want them in the trash, you don't want them in the recycle bins," Lawton said. "Because when they are, say, compressed as they're collected in a garbage truck, would can happen as they can ignite and that can have really disastrous consequences not only for equipment but facilities and human health.”
Lawton says fires have broken out elsewhere in the country. Locally, workers here have intercepted charred vape batteries before they caused a problem.
OCRRA is including the vape devices in its upcoming collection of mercury thermometers and thermostats Saturday. Palmer says there are ways to tell what is really mercury.
"If you have a mercury thermometer and it has silver, metallic gray or black filling in the bulbs, then it has mercury. Any other color indicates it's not a mercury thermometer. You can throw that right in the trash," Palmer said. "For thermostats, they have the dials and levers that you need to manually adjust. If you take off the faceplate, and you see one or more glass vials that have a silver substance, then you have a mercury."
As an incentive, Reworld, operator of OCRRA's waste-to-energy facility, will give residents with mercury thermometers or thermostats a $10 Lowe's gift card.
The registration deadline for either the mercury or vape device collection is Friday at 11:59 pm. More information can be found here.
